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THE 



SATIRES 



OP 



P E R S I U S 



TRANSLATED 



WITH NOTES. 



EY 



WILLIAM DRUMMOND, ESQ. M. P. 

— 

FELLOW OP THE ROYAL SOCIBTIES OP 
LONDON AND EDINBURGH. 






LONDON 



PRINTED POR J. GINGER, 169, PICCADILLY. 
1803. 



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tf$sa 



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PRINTED EY B. N. SHURY, BERWICK-STREET, 



PREFACE 



In offering to the Public a new English version 
of Persius, my object has rather been to express 
his meaning clearly, than either to translate his 
words literally, or to copy his manner servilely. 
The sentiments of this satirist are indeed admir- 
able, and deserve to be better known than they 
are; but his poetry cannot be praised for its ele- 
gance, nor his language for its urbanity. It is 
one thino-, to esteem the excellent sense of an 
author, and another, to propose his style as a 
model of imitation. 

The defects of Persius, considered with respect 
to composition, cannot perhaps be easily defend- 
ed. Even Casaubon, his fondest admirer, and 
most successful interpreter, admits that his style 



11 PREFACE. 

is obscure. If, however, any apology can be 
made for this first sin against good writing, it is 
in the case of a satirist, and above all, of a sati- 
rist who dared to reprobate the crimes, and to 
ridicule the follies of a tyrant. If Persius be 
obscure, let it be remembered, he lived in the 
time of Nero. 

But it has been remarked, that this Author is 
not obscure, only when he lashes and exposes 
the Roman emperor. It was very well, it has 
been said, to employ hints, and to speak in half 
sentences, while he censured the vices of a cruel 
and luxurious despot ; but there could be no oc- 
casion for enveloping himself in obscurity, while 
he expounded the doctrines of the Stoics to his 
friend Cornutus, or expatiated to the poet Bassus 
on the true use of riches. 

But those who blame Persius for his obscu- 
rity, ought to reflect, that of all the various kinds 
of poetry satire is that, which loses most, by being 
read at a period very distant from the time of its 



PREFACE. Ill 



composition. Just observations upon men and 
manners will indeed be esteemed in every age, 
when taste and literature flourish ; and well de- 
scribed characters will always interest readers of 
judgment and feeling. But it is not the nature of 
satire to dwell upon general topics, without allu- 
sion to existing circumstances, or without refer- 
ence to particular, and even familiar, examples. 

But it may be asked, if vice and folly would 
not be exposed with perhaps greater effect, by the 
delineation of fictitious characters, and by gene- 
ral observations upon manners, than by dwelling 
upon the absurdity of a temporary fashion, or 
upon the guilt or weakness of an obscure indi- 
vidual. To this question the satirist may justly 
reply, that his aim is not only to censure vice, 
but to punish those who practice it. If example 
teach at all, it teaches most where it applies best. 
The principle upon which punishment is justly 
inflicted, is for the sake of example ; and the 
punishment, which we dread because it may be 
ours, seems terrible even when it falls upon others, 



IV PREFACE. 

General and abstract reasoning upon virtue and 
morality, may delight the wise and the good ; 
but it rarely corrects the foolish, or reforms the 
profligate. 

As the moralist treats generally of virtue and of 
wisdom, of the influence of reason, and of the 
subordination of the passions ; so the satirist 
remarks and censures those private and indivi- 
dual deviations from good sense or good conduct, 
which it does not fall within the province of the 
moralist to observe. The moralist displays the 
variety of the human character, as it exists in all 
ages and nations ; the satirist marks its shades 
and its defects in particular instances. 

While, therefore, I fully admit the charge of 
obscurity, which has been brought against Persius, 
I cannot allow to it that weight, which it would 
have in most other cases. Indeed, we may as well 
complain of the rust on an ancient coin, as of the 
obscurity of an ancient satire. Nature, it is true, 
always holds up the same mirror, but prejudice, 



PREFACE. V 

habit, and education, are continually changing 
the appearance of the objects seen in it. 

The objections which have been made to my 
Author in some other respects, are more difficult 
to answer. His unpolished verses, his coarse 
comparisons, and his ungraceful transitions from 
one subject to another, manifest, it is said, 
either his contempt or his ignorance of elegant 
composition. 

It cannot, indeed, be contended, that Persius 
displays the politeness of Horace, or that in the 
composition either of his words, his sentences, or 
his satires, he shows himself an adept in the 
callida jundura. His poetry is a strong and 
rapid torrent, which pours in its infracted course 
over rocks and precipices, and which occasion- 
ally, like the waters of the Rhone, disappears 
from the view, and loses itself under ground. 

Among the defects of this Author in point of 
style, must be remarked the too evident labour, 



VI PREFACE. 

with which he wrote, or rather corrected what 
he had written. In poetry, as well as in painting 
and in sculpture, the most perfect are generally 
the most laboured productions. The imagination, 
however, is seldom pleased with what suggests 
ideas of difficulty and toil — with what has been 
produced by an unusual effort, and is conti- 
nued by a painful and unremitting exertion. 
In order to be graceful, it is necessary to be easy; 
and the poet, who aims at elegance, must conceal 
the pains which it costs him, to write with free- 
dom, and yet with accuracy. 

When we read fine verses, which flow easily, 
of which the sound is harmonious, the sentiments 
are just, the images natural, and the ideas con- 
nected ; we can scarcely at first sight persuade 
ourselves, that they were probably composed 
with difficulty, and corrected with care. On the 
contrary, we are almost willing to give credit to 
the fiction of the poet, and to believe, that he is 
inspired by Muses, and writes, as they dictate. 
As the eye frequently wanders over a beautiful 



PREFACE. Vll 

garden, without perceiving the skill which has 
placed the groves, or spread the waters ; so the 
mind does not always remark the art, which in a 
fine poem has polished the numbers, or adorned 
the language. Every reader of taste is charmed 
with the grace, the beauty, the elegance, the har- 
mony, the majesty of Virgil's poetry ; but the 
attentive critic alone will know how to appreciate 
the incessant labour, the unwearied vigilance, the 
scrupulous accuracy, and the patient industry, 
which must have been employed in the composi- 
tion of the yEneis, and of the Georgics, the most 
sublime productions of the Roman Muse. 

It may indeed be considered as a proof of no 
common excellence in a poet, when his works 
have all the merits, which are produced by care 
and attention, without the appearance of stiff- 
ness, or pedantry. Who, upon a first perusal of 
the charming verses of Guarini, would suspect, 
that they had been extremely laboured ? yet the 
graces of Guarini's style have an air of negli- 
gence, which the poet never indulged. It is well 



Vlll PREFACE. 

known, that Pope corrected his works with the 
most scrupulous solicitude ; nevertheless the pre- 
cision of the critic seems seldom to constrain the 
facility of the master, or to cramp the genius of 
the poet. 

In the writings of Persius we have continually 
to lament his studied compression, his elaborate 
brevity, his painful energy. Not satisfied with 
pruning the too luxuriant shoots, he lops off the 
branches, which make the ornaments of the tree. 
He seems perpetually to forget that a satirist 
does not write only for the wise, to whom a 
word is enough ; and he is constantly guilty of 
the rare, though fatal error, of having said too 
little. 

But although some critics have been thus far 
justly severe upon Persius, is it possible that they 
should be so much prejudiced against him, by 
the imperfections of his style, as to deny that 
this excellent satirist possessed energy, acuteness, 
and spirit? Because his language is rude, is not 



PREFACE. IX 

his bold and manly sense to be admired ? What 
mind is so fastidious as to contemn just observa- 
tions, and sound and wise reflections, because 
they are not expressed in the most elegant man- 
ner? The ancients, who must have seen the 
defects of Persius better than we can do, never- 
theless admired him. All the philosophers and 
poets of his time seem to have esteemed him ; 
and the best critic, and the wittiest epigram- 
matist of antiquity, were among the number of 
those who celebrated him. And then comes the 
elder Scaliger, with all his offensive pedantry, 
to inform us that Persius was silly and dull. 
But Ouintilian would not have praised a silly 
writer, nor would Martial have admired a dull 
one. 

As the translator of Persius, I have sometimes 
thought it necessary to polish his language. 
Even Dryden found the expressions of this Au- 
thor too much forced to be literally translated ; 
and he observes, with more truth than delicacy, 
that his verses are scabrous and hobbling. 



PREFACE. 



What Dryden judged too rude for imitation, 
the critics of the present day will probably think 
I have been prudent in not copying. I have ge- 
nerally, therefore, followed the outlines ; but I 
have seldom ventured to employ the colouring of 
Persius. Where the coarse metaphor, or the 
extravagant hyperbole debases, or obscures the 
sense in the original, I have changed, or even 
omitted it ; where the idiom of the English 
language required it, I have thought myself 
justified, in abandoning the literal sense of my 
Author; and lastly, where the bold hand of the 
Roman satirist has torn the veil, which ought 
perhaps for ever to have concealed from mankind 
the monstrous and unnatural crimes of Nero, I 
have turned the attention of my readers to re- 
flections less disagreeable, and to objects less dis- 
gusting. 

Some, I know, there are who think, that in 
translation not a thought of the author should be 
lost, and not one added to him. Such readers I 
shall not often please. But I must observe, that 



PREFACE. 



of all kinds of poetry satire is the most difficult 
to translate with fidelity, and yet with elegance. 
The epic, the tragic, or the lyric poet, speaks to 
the heart, or to the imagination ; and his ideas 
may be expressed in almost every tongue. What 
language but can convey the sublime, paint the 
beautiful, or express the pathetic! 

Not only works of taste and imagination, but 
even philosophic and didactic poems are more 
easily translated than satiric compositions. We 
can always follow, though we may not always 
allow the reasoning of Lucretius; and it would 
perhaps be an easier task to translate well the Art 
oi Poetry of Horace, than to preserve the grace, 
the spirit, and the elegance of the original, in 
rendering many of his satires. 

Dryden observes, in apology for the style of 
Persius, that when he wrote, the Latin language 
was more corrupted than in the time of Juvenal, 
and consequently of Horace. But ought not 
Dryden to have known that Persius wrote before 



Xll PREFACE. 

Juvenal? Besides, it cannot be supposed that 
the Latin language had lost very much of its 
purity in the time of either of these poets. Per- 
sius was born about eighteen years after the death 
of Augustus Csesar; and Juvenal began to flou- 
rish about eighty years after the same period. 
But the silver age of Roman eloquence was re- 
markable, rather for the decline of taste, than for 
the corruption of language. The fault seems to 
have been fastidious delicacy; for refinement, 
when it becomes excessive, is not less hurtful to 
good writing, than the very coarseness and rude- 
ness which it would avoid. Qiiintilian, indeed, 
complains, that barbarisms were gaining ground; 
and in some degree authorizes Dryden's observa- 
tion, by remarking that Persius had employed 
one word without much attention to the purity 
of its Latinity. But it is well known, that new 
expressions had been frequently employed by 
the best Latin authors. Cicero has introduced 
many words from the Greek, in his philosophical 
works, which are models of eloquence. Horace, 
the purest of the Roman poets, contends for the 



PREFACE. Xlll 

admission of new words. Virgil employs se- 
veral words in a sense peculiar to himself, as 
is remarked by Aurelius Victor. The Latinity 
of Livy has not escaped without censure ; and 
though his style is better, his language is not 
purer than that of Tacitus. This last admirable 
writer offends only by the affected conciseness of 
his manner, which does not possess the simpli- 
city required in history. Even Seneca himself, 
amidst the glare of his false eloquence, is guilty 
of incorrectness in taste, rather than of impurity 
in language. True indeed it is, that when taste 
is corrupted, language generally declines ; but it 
is not the want of refinement, which can be im- 
puted as a fault to most of the authors, who wrote 
immediately subsequent to the Augustan age. 

A learned critic contends, that Persius brought 
satiric poetry to perfection, inasmuch as he was 
the first who treated only of one subject in each 
of his satires. Unity of subject, adds he, is 
as essential to satire, as unity of fable to tra- 
gedy. 



XIV PREFACE. 

I am doubtful if this be either true with respect 
to fact, or just with respect to criticism. Horace 
certainly does not violate the unity of subject, 
for example, in his first satire; and Persius can 
hardly be said to have preserved it in his sixth. 
In the fifth likewise, the most excellent of his 
satires, Persius cannot claim much praise for 
preserving the unity of subject, as he commences 
with some severe strictures upon bombast poets, 
and concludes with a dissertation upon liberty, 
as it was understood by the Stoics. 

But is this critic right, in thinking that unity 
of subject is conformable to the nature, or consis- 
tent with the original plan of satire ? Let us very 
briefly retrace the history of this species of poe- 
try, and afterwards examine the justice of this 
opinion. 

During the early ages of Rome the Fescennine 
verses, and the songs of the Salii, were probably 
the only poetical compositions known to the Ro- 
mans. The Fescennine verses were generally 



PREFACE. XV 

sung, or recited, at the annual celebration of the 
feast of Saturn, and upon other occasions of pub- 
lic rejoicing. 

But the Tuscans were at this time the most 
esteemed for their poetical productions of any 
people of Italy ; and the Romans having insti- 
tuted scenic representations, in order to appease 
the anger of the gods after a pestilence, hired some 
players from Tuscany, to assist at these exhibi- 
tions. As the language of the Tuscans was not 
understood at Rome, they confined themselves to 
pantomime, and by their looks and gestures, full 
of expression, spoke to the heart and to the pas- 
sions, with the energy of a thousand tongues. 

The Romans soon caught the art, which they 
admired. In the year 5 11 of Rome, Livius An- 
dronicus performed several pieces of his own, and 
added the interest of dialogue to the graces of ac- 
tion. Previous to this acra, the poems recited in 
public were known by the name of Satire. Many 
disputes have arisen on the derivation of this 



XVI PREFACE. 

word. According to Diomedes the grammarian, 
it may be derived, either a Satyris, because it 
abounds with immodest and ridiculous things, 
such as might be said and done by those repre- 
senting satyrs on the stage ; or from satura lanx, a 
full dish, in which the various first fruits of the 
year were anciently offered to the gods. 

If satire be entirely a Roman poem, as is as- 
serted both by Horace and Quintilian; the latter 
is evidently the juster derivation. It is then per- 
haps only necessary to admit this fact, to be con- 
vinced that satire was originally considered as 
a mixed and motley kind of composition — an 
olla, in which subjects were introduced with little 
attention to order or method. 

If, indeed, arrangement or regularity had been 
thought essential to this species of composition, 
Horace would not have shewn himself so defi- 
cient in that lucid order which he recommends 
in his Epistle to the Pisos. But the truth is, that 
he considered variety as essential to satire. The 



PREFACE. XVH 

dish was not only to be full of fruit, but was to 
contain all kinds. 

Et sermone opus est, modo tristi ssepe jocoso, 
Defendente vicem modo rhetoris atque poetae : , 
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque 
Extenuantis eas consulto. Ridiculum acri 
Fortius et melius plerumque secat res. hor. 

But even if it should appear that satire was of 
Greek, or rather of Sicilian origin, still the ear- 
liest of the Roman satirists seem to have thought, 
that unity of subject was by no means consistent 
with the nature of the poetry which they wrote. 
Had not this been the case, they would not have 
preferred the old Greek comedy to the new. Me- 
nander would have been their model, and not 
Aristophanes. 

It is partly from considering with attention 
the ancient satires which still remain ; and partly 
from investigating with accuracy the history of 
satiric poetry, that we shall be best enabled to form 
a just judgment with respect to it. If I were to 
offer my opinion, I should say, that I believe 



XV111 PREFACE. 

satire admits not less variety in style, than in 
subject. Sometimes dramatic, sometimes episto- 
lary, it is confined neither in manner nor in mat- 
ter. Now it is familiar, now it is dictatorial; 
now it speaks the easy language of elegant co- 
medy, now it assumes the more serious tone of 
tragic declamation. With Horace, it is witty, 
instructive, ironical; with Persius, it is concise, 
learned, and ardent; with Juvenal, it is diffuse, 
eloquent, and unrelentingly severe. 

In the comparison which Dryden has drawn 
between these masters, I cannot think he has 
shewn his judgment to be very accurate, or his 
taste to be very correct. The whole, indeed, of 
his admirable preface to Juvenal, displays his 
fine bold genius, but is not remarkable for depth 
or for accuracy of knowledge. I cannot think 
that Horace is a less pleasing satirist than Juve- 
nal. On the contrary, the delight which I re- 
ceive from the latter is generally mixed with a 
considerable portion of pain, — that pain too not 
excited by ideal miseries, not created by imagi- 



PREFACE. XIX 

nary woes — but resulting from the contempla- 
tion of real horrors, of existing crimes, and of 
practiced atrocities. Juvenal conducts his reader 
through no illusory scenes. It is to human life 
that he directs the attention. — It is there he points 
out a thousand causes for mournful reflection — 
it is there he exhibits enough, more than enough, 
to rouse the indignation of the moralist, and to 
excite the spleen of the satirist. Every vice that 
can blacken, and every weakness that can degrade 
our nature, are held forth to execration in his 
terrible page. But the philanthropist looks in 
vain for some extenuating word, some relent- 
ing expression, some exculpatory clause, which 
might indicate that mankind in general are not 
the slaves of vile passions, the perpetrators of 
detestable vices, the dupes or the agents of vil- 
lainy. The pictures drawn by the vigorous and 
masterly hand of Juvenal may justly claim our 
admiration ; but surely little delight can be felt 
in learning, even from him, the monstrous de- 
pravity of which humanity has been but too often 
found susceptible. 



XX PREFACE. 

Horace seems to have studied the effects -of 
light and shade in his pictures, with more atten- 
tion than his rival ; and he has happily combined 
the broad humour of the old Greek comedy with 
the elegance of the new. 1 think, in comparing 
him even with Juvenal, we may say, midto est 
tersior, ac pums magis Horalhis, et ad notanda ho- 
minum mores precijmus* 

The defect of Juvenal seems to be, that his 
tone is too generally, I had almost said inva- 
riably, grave. The Romans understood by satire 
a more mixed kind of composition than this poet 
(excellent as he certainly is,) seems to have at- 
tempted. We are surprised at the high strain of 
invective, at the magnificent verses, at the sound- 
ing eloquence, which we find in almost every 
page of a book, denominated by its author, a 
farrago libelli. 

It will scarcely be urged in favour of Juvenal, 
that when he does not soar upon his eagle pinions, 
his flight is often directed where the eye of taste 



PREFACE. XXI 

cannot wish to follow it. In his sixth, the wittiest 
of all his satires, his scurrility, and his obscenity, 
have little — perhaps no pretensions to humour. 

In comparing the three great satirists of anti- 
quity, I am inclined to give the first place to Ho- 
race, the second to Juvenal, and the third to Per- 
sius. Horace is the most agreeable and the most 
instructive writer; Juvenal the most splendid 
declaimer; and Persius the most inflexible mora- 
list. The first is like a skilful gladiator, who 
vanquishes without destroying his antagonist; — 
the second exerts gigantic strength in the con- 
test; — and the third enters the lists with all the 
ardour of a youthful combatant. If the style of 
Horace be chaster, if his Latinity be purer, if his 
manner be gayer and more agreeable than either 
of the two satirists who follow him, he does not 
write finer verses than Juvenal, nor has he nobler 
thoughts than Persius. The poetry of the first 
resembles a beautiful river, which glides along 
through pleasant scenes, sunny fields, and smiling 
valleys : that of the second is like the majestic 



XX11 PREFACE. 

stream, whose waters, in flowing by the largest 
city in Europe, are polluted with no small portion 
of its filth and ordure : that of the third may be 
compared to a deep and angry torrent, which 
loves to roll its sullen waves under the dark sha- 
dow of the mountain, or amidst the silent gloom 
of the forest. 

Having now considered the character of 
Persius as a poet, I shall proceed to make 
some observations upon him as a critic and a 
moralist. 

1. The decline of Roman eloquence, and the 
bad taste in criticism, which prevailed at Rome 
under the reign of Nero, furnished Persius with 
the subject of his first satire. In his strictures 
upon the poetasters of his time, he is, indeed, as 
Ascensius terms him, acerbissimiis irrisor. He ri- 
dicules the verses of Nero with very little cere- 
mony, and mocks without reserve, the literary 
pretensions of his courtiers. Does the taste of 
nations then decline so rapidly? fifty years had 



PREFACE. XX111 

probably not elapsed between the publication of 
the ^Eneis, and the composition of this bitter in- 
vective against the corrupt taste of the Romans in 
poetry and eloquence. 

If it be indeed true, as has been asserted by se- 
veral writers, and especially by D'Alembert in a 
discourse which he pronounced before the French 
Academy, that taste, though not generally pos- 
sessed, is no wise an arbitrary thing; it seems 
difficult to account for the short duration of those 
periods, which in different ages have been most 
distinguished for refinement and for learning. 
When true notions of grandeur and of beauty 
have once been understood : and when mankind 
have once agreed in admiring the most perfect 
productions of art ; it appears extraordinary, 
that the admitted standards of excellence should 
not longer continue the models of imitation. 
History and experience, however, teach us, that 
revolutions in taste are at least as frequent as in 
politics and in manners. 



XXIV PREFACE. 

These fluctuations in the taste of nations may 
be influenced by many causes, but they seem gene- 
rally to be produced by the love of that variety, to 
which Nature herself has habituated man. Every 
pleasure appears to us to be heightened by no- 
velty ; and as the first emotions are the strongest, 
so the imagination is still most forcibly affected 
by change. The human mind is too restless to 
remain long satisfied with the contemplation of 
the same objects. We seek for beauty, and we 
recognize it under many forms : we are not al- 
ways most delighted with what is most regular: 
we not only desire variety, but we are sometimes 
pleased with contrast. It cannot, therefore, be a 
matter of surprise, that writers should hope to suc- 
ceed by attempting what is new and uncommon. 
It is in consulting the human mind, that they 
strive to please by variety ; and in making this 
endeavour too, even where they are neither di- 
rected by judgment, nor inspired by genius, they 
are often flattered by temporary success, and by 
transient reputation. 



PREFACE. XXV 

Affectation is another cause of the rapid decline 
of eloquence, among nations already advanced 
to refinement. As the most finished works of 
man still fall short of that perfection, which it 
will ever be more easy to imagine, than to attain; 
so the desire of improving excellence will some- 
times hurry us into extravagance, and lead us to 
make trials, which are beyond our strength. In- 
judicious writers are apt to forget, that when 
they are arrived at the sublime, one step further 
will carry them into the bombast; nor do they ever 
seem able to form to themselves an idea of that 
beauty, which is, when unadorned, adorned the most. 
Accordingly, in their works they go on embel- 
lishing, what was already ornamented ; refining, 
where elegance already existed ; and adding new 
graces, where they already abounded. They are 
never content with what can be done by the 
art of the sculptor, but, like the Roman emperor, 
they gild the statue. 

Bad taste indeed is seldom satisfied with sim- 
plicity. Nor are authors more guilty in this re- 



XXVI PREFACE. 

spect, than readers. It is the common error of bad 
writers , to think that their works are sublime , when 
they are only bombast ; and it is the common 
fault of bad critics not to discover the mistake. 

When Persius wrote, the vice of affectation 
seems to have been universal. His own compo- 
sitions, as Scaliger remarks, are not exempt from 
it. Many of his observations, however, are well 
worthy of our attention; for in these days we 
are not without our Accii in verse, or our 
Pedii in eloquence. We have indeed many 
speakers and many writers; but we have few, 
who seem to think with Longinus, that just 
judgment in speaking and writing is the last fruit of 
long experience. 

2. I shall now direct the attention of the reader 
to the moral character of Persius as a writer ; be- 
cause this to a satirist must always be of the highest 
importance. Cicero has observed of how great 
consequence it is to an orator, that he should be 
esteemed a man of virtue and principle. But if a 



PREFACE. XXV11 

good moral character be necessary to those, who 
endeavour to persuade others, it is surely no less 
essential to those, who presume to blame, and who 
attempt to reform the manners of mankind. Abi- 
lity and virtue are indispensable in a satirist. 
We can neither bear with dullness in him who 
laughs at our follies, nor pardon crimes in him 
who censures our vices. 

In order to be better enabled to appreciate the 
moral character of Persius, I shall make some 
remarks upon the philosophy of that sect to 
which he belonged, whose principles he ge- 
nerally followed, and whose doctrines he incul- 
cated by his precepts, and recommended by his 
example. 

From the time the Romans began to apply 
themselves to Greek literature, until the esta- 
blishment of the Eclectic sect, the philosophical 
world at Rome seems to have been chiefly divided 
between the systems of Zeno and of Epicurus. 
In vain had Cicero ridiculed the lofty maxims 



XXV111 PREFACE. 

of the first of these philosophers — in vain had 
he exposed the presumptuous reasoning of the 
second. Whether the arguments of the Roman 
orator were not considered as convincing upon 
these topics ; whether his speculations were too 
profound for his age ; or whether his scepticism 
was too strong for it; it does not appear that 
he succeeded in making many converts to the 
doctrines of the new Academy, of whose philo- 
sophy he was the advocate. The licentious crowd 
still listened to the agreeable lessons taught by 
the followers of Epicurus ; and the few but 
inflexible disciples of Stoicism adhered to their 
philosophy, in spite of the raillery of wits, and 
the subtleties of Dialecticians. 

In the number of those who argued most 
warmly in favour of the dogmas of the Portico, 
our Author is to be placed. The heroic virtues of 
the Stoics seem to have suited " the habits of his 
soul." Their precepts were dictated in the highest 
strain of morality. Patience in misfortune, calm- 
ness in danger, insensibility to pain, indifference 



PREFACE. XXIX 

to pleasure, and moderation in all things, were 
according to them inseparable from wisdom, 
and necessary to virtue. They held, that the 
great object of man should be to sustain the 
dignity of his moral nature; and they acknow- 
ledged no perfect liberty but that, which en- 
tirely frees the mind from the thraldom of the 
passions. 

It is in his fifth satire, that Persius treats of 
this stoical doctrine of liberty. In nothing did 
the sect of Zeno push farther its almost romantic 
philosophy. According to this theory, no man 
was either truly wise, or truly free, who suffered 
himself in any degree to be swayed by his pas- 
sions. These, the Stoics considered as the tyrants 
of the soul; and they taught, that their usurpation 
ought to be resisted by every one, who aspired 
to the rank of philosopher. 

To extirpate the passions altogether from the 
breast, and to leave the mind in a state of apathy, 
cannot but be contrary both to reason, and to 



XXX PREFACE. 

nature. The passions, which are so constantly 
the motives of conduct, and the springs of action, 
are implanted in us, in order to stimulate our 
minds, and to incite us to exertion. Those, who' 
have studied human nature, not in the systems 
of philosophers, but in the world, need not be 
told, that as man is a being formed for society, so 
he must consequently be influenced by passions 
and affections. We are made susceptible of 
anger, in order that we may repel injury — of 
fear, in order that we may attend to the preser- 
vation of our existence— of desire, in order that 
we may continue our species. It is not therefore 
against the passions, but against an improper 
indulgence of them, that good sense will direct 
us to guard. It is not against impulses, which 
Nature ordains, but against excesses which out- 
rage her, that sound Philosophy cautions her 
disciples. If we see the existence of final causes 
demonstrated in the wonderful organization of 
the human body, can we suppose, that the con- 
stitution of the mind of man was less the work 
of design and intelligence ? Shall we believe 



PREFACE. XXXI 

that it is with no wise intention, and for no 
useful purpose, that Nature makes us susceptible 
of so many various emotions? The control of 
reason over the passions is indeed essential to 
happiness; and to restrain and moderate their 
violence will always be the task of philosophy, 
and the proof of wisdom. But they who teach 
us, that we ought to suppress all feeling — to be 
sensible neither to grief, nor to joy — to be in- 
different to pain and to pleasure — to be moved 
neither by love nor by hatred, nor by ambition, 
nor by hope, nor by fear, nor by anger — recom- 
mend what cannot be practiced, and what, if it 
could, would be absurd and unnatural. 

Cicero has ably exposed the doctrine of the 
Stoics concerning the nature of the Deity; and 
has ridiculed with his usual pleasantry their 
roluudum ardent em volubilem Deum. It is not a 
little difficult, indeed, to understand that part of 
their system, where they endeavour to make it 
appear, that the world is governed by the wisdom 
and providence of their igneous and material 



XXX11 PREFACE. 

god. If Persius has any where abandoned the 
principles of Stoicism, it seems to be upon this 
topic. It is evident from his second satire, that 
he had studied the writings of Plato, and that, 
like that philosopher, he had conceived an exalted 
notion of the Divine Intelligence. Whilst Ido- 
latry lavished treasures upon the gods which she 
herself had created — whilst Superstition daily 
immolated victims upon her bloody altars — and 
whilst the capital of the world was divided be- 
tween atheists and fanatics — or at least between 
those who thought, the gods interfered in every 
thing, and those who thought, they interfered in 
nothing, — a heathen poet taught the sublime 
lesson, that a pure heart is the most acceptable 
gift which man can make to his Creator. Well 
might Bishop Burnet say of this satire, that 
it may pass for an excellent lecture in divi- 
nity. 

From the remarks which I have made upon 
the object and tendency of my Author's writings, 
I flatter myself that the reader, who is yet unac- 



PREFACE. XXX11I 

quainted with them, and who can be satisfied 
with good sense and sound morality, without 
looking for wit, for elegance, or for invention, 
will be inclined to peruse them : and I have no 
doubt, but that he may be induced to think with 
me, that many of the maxims of Persius might 
be observed in the present age, with considerable 
advantage both to its morals, and to its taste in 
literature. 

I cannot conclude this Preface without la- 
menting, that an early and untimely death should 
have prevented the Poet, whose works I have 
translated, from giving them a more finished ap- 
pearance. His short day was so truly glorious, 
that it ever must be lamented it was closed so 
soon. Above all, the fate of Persius must have 
been mourned by the friendly Cornutus. It was 
his bosom, which had first received and cherished 
the neglected plant — it was his care, which had 
long fostered it with such fond and assiduous 
culture — it was his arm, which had already 
warded off a thousand dangers. Alas 1 the flower 



XXXIV PREFACE. 



was just expanded in full blossom to the morn- 
ing sun, when the day overcast, and this pro- 
mised pride of the garden perished by the relent- 
less storm. 



THE 



LIFE OF PERSIUS. 



Aulus Persius Flaccus, according to the frag- 
ment ascribed to Probus, was born on the day 
before the Nones of December, in the consulship 
of Fabius Persicus, and Lucius Vitellius; and 
died in that of Rubrius Marius, and Asinius 
Gallus, on the eighth of the Kalends of December. 
But as there were only twenty-eight years be- 
tween these two consulships, the author of the 
fragment is afterwards guilty of a glaring mis- 
take, in stating that Persius died at thirty years 
of age. 

o 



XXXVI LIFE OF PERSIUS. 

Persius was born at Volaterrae in Etruria. He 
was of the equestrian order, and was allied to 
some of the noblest families of Rome. The 
author of the fragment says, his father died when 
Persius was scarcely six years old. But the ac- 
count given by our Poet himself, seems to con- 
tradict this assertion* 

Saepe oculos memini tangebam parvus olivo, 
Grandia si nollem morituri verba Catonis 
Discere, ab insano multum laudanda magistro, 
Quae pater adductis sudans audiret amicis. 
Jure etenim id summum, quid dexter senio ferret, 
Scire erat in votis, damnosa canicula quantum 
Raderet, &c. 

What, could a child, not six years of age, 
have occasioned his father a sweating, because 
he could not repeat Cato's dying speech ? And 
was this same infant, who was to have publicly 
recited the dying words of the Roman patriot, in 



LIFE OF PERSIUS. XXXV11 

the habit of playing at hazard, and of making 
calculations of chances? 

Persius studied at Volaterras, till he was twelve 
years of age. After that period, he was under 
the tuition of two masters at Rome, one of whom 
was a grammarian, and the other a rhetorician. 
The author of the fragment says, Persius did 
not become the pupil of Cornutus, till he had 
reached his sixteenth year. But our Poet tells 
us, his acquaintance with Cornutus did not 
commence till after he had taken the virile 
gown: 

Cum primum pavido custos mihi purpura cessit — 

Now the age at which the praetexta was laid aside, 
was seventeen years. 

Among the number of friends and companions 
of Persius, were the poets Lucan and Bassus. 



XXXV111 LIFE OF PERSIUS. 

The latter is mentioned with respect by Quin- 
tilian. 

The author of the fragment says, sero cognovit 
■fnempc Persius) Senecam, seel nonut caperetur ejus 
ingenio. By this I can only understand, that Per-: 
sius could never relish the pompous eloquence, 
and declamatory style of Seneca. It is impos- 
sible that he should nothave admired the talents, 
and respected the virtues of that philosopher, 
who was also a Stoic. 

Persius was a person of the mildest manners, 
remarkable for the beauty of his form, and for 
the modesty of his appearance. His piety was 
exemplary, in discharging the relative duties of 
his situation. When he died he left a sum of 
money, together with his books, to Cornutus. 
The philosopher accepted the books, and de- 
livered the money to the sisters of his pupil. 



LIFE OF PERSIUS. XXXIX 

It appears that Persius wrote seldom and 
slowly. His Satires were much valued by his 
cotemporaries. The poet Lucan particularly ad- 
mired them. 

He is said to have died of a stomach complaint. 
He forms one of the few examples of a young 
man, during the course of a short life, having 
acquired immortality for his name by his vir- 
tues, his talents, and his learning. 



THE 



TRANSLATOR'S PROLOGUE. 



POET AND FRIEND. 



POET. 

JNay, spare your censures, nor condemn the lays: 

The town — the town may yet accord its praise. — 

Enlighten'd Warton may approve the style ; 

And classic Giffard nod the head and smile. 

F. have I not told you o'er and o'er again, 

Not to indulge your rhiming scribbling vein ? 

Besides, your age : consider, Sir, your age, 

And learn to temper your poetic rage. 

P. As time speeds on, and years revolve, my friend, 

I grow too idle, or too old to mend. 

While yet a youth, my pure descriptive lays 

The learn'd could suffer, and the partial praise. 



xlii translator's prologue, v. 13 — 36. 

Her brilliant tints Imagination threw 

O'er the wild scenes my artless pencil drew ; 

Soft numbers fell unstudied from my tongue, 

Fancy was pleased, and Judgment yet was young : 

Gay Hope then smoothed the wrinkled brow of Time, 

Love waved his torch, and youth was in its prime. 

But soon the tempest gather'd o'er my head, 

Health lost her bloom, and faithless Pleasure fled ; 

Friendship retired, and left me to decay, 

And Love desponding threw his torch away. 

'Twas then, when sickness and when sorrow drew 

Their sable curtain on my clouded view ; 

When lost to hope, I wander'd, wan and pale, 

O'er Cintra's rocks, or sought Vaucluse's vale ; 

That left in distant climes to droop and pine, 

The Muse's converse and her art were mine : 

Nor less beloved has been the tuneful lay, 

Since fortune smiled, and fate restored my day. 

F. O idle talk ! your early song, 'tis true, 

Might please the rustic and unletter'd crew ; 

But now the strain has lost its wonted fire, 

His art the Poet, and its tones the lyre. 

P. And yet for me the Muses still have charms, 

Their light yet guides me, and their fire yet warms. 



translator's prologue, v. 37 — 60. xliii 

For me the silvan world has beauties still, 
The shaded valley, or the sun-clad hill. 
Nor yet unwelcome does the hour draw nigh, 
Which leaves me free from busy crowds to fly ; 
The hour which warns me to renew the oil, 
The poet's pleasure, and the student's toil. 
Nor undelighted does my mind recall 
Its infant joys in yonder Gothic hall ; 
Where still the legendary tale goes round, 
Of charms and spells, of treasures lost and found, 
Of fearful goblins, and malicious sprites, 
Enchanted damsels, and enamour'd knights : 
Or led by fancy back to ancient times, 
To fairer regions, and to milder climes, 
I love through all the Muse's haunts to rove, 
On Hybla's hill, or in th' Aonian grove. 
Or seek those fabled scenes, by poets sung, 
Where his famed lyre the Thracian artist strung ; 
Where Phoebus, sighing o'er the shepherd's tomb, 
Bade the sweet flower of Hyacinthus bloom ; 
Where with young Zephyr Flora loved to play, 
And hid her blushes in the lap of May ; 
Where Dian nightly woo'd a blooming boy, 
And, veird by darkness, was no longer coy ; 



xliv translator's prologue, v. 6i — 84. 

Where erst, when winter's stormy reign began, 

A purple fountain changed Adonis ran, 

Her annual tears desponding Venus shed, 

And the wave redden'd, as the hunter bled. 

F. Cease, cease to dream. The golden age is o'er, 

And mortals know those happy times no more, 

When Pan with Phoebus piped upon the plains, 

When kings were shepherds, and when gods were swains. 

Plain common sense, thank Heaven, has banish 'd long 

The age of fable, and the reign of song. 

No cities now dispute the sacred earth, 

Which haply gave some favour'd poet birth ; 

Affairs of empire no Augustus quits 

To judge with critics, or unbend with wits: 

The world's great master might sweet verse admire, 

Might love the Muse, and listen to the lyre ; 

Might seek the festive board, where Horace sung, 

And learn what accents fell from Maro's tongue. 

Our Sovereign Lord, avenging Europe's wrongs, 

Turns not his thoughts from politics to songs. 

Alas, poor bards ! fled are those golden days, 

When monarchs' ears were tickled by your praise. 

Be wise, my friend, — the useless lyre resign, 

Forget Parnassus, and forsake the Nine. 



translator's prologue, v. 85 — 108. xlv 

Your Persius too, austere, though beardless sage, 

Will ne'er be borne in this enlighten'd age. 

His moral rules, his stiff ungracious air, 

Will fright the young, and never please the fair. 

No tender tale of grief, or love, he tells, 

Reports no scandal, even of Roman belles ; 

But ever grave, decisive, and severe, 

Scorns Folly's smile, nor asks for Pity's tear. 

P. Unused to courts, nor sprung from flattery's womb, 

The Muse beloved by Liberty and Rome, 

Satire, stern maid, no adulation knows, 

No weak respect for empty grandeur shows ; 

But, bold as free, brands purple Vice with shame, 

And blots from honour's page the harlot's name ; 

At Folly scoffs, in robes of ermine dress'd, 

And galls proud Arrogance by Power caress'd. 

Not such her lays, when on her native plains 

She sung rude carols to Etrurian swains. 

No art, no grace, no polish, then she knew, 

But coarsely colour'd, and with harshness drew. 

Then Momus ever in her train advanced, 

And Mirth and Revelry before her danced ; 

Triumphant Bacchus bore aloft the vine. 

And old Silenus sung the joys of wine. 



xlvi translator's prologue, v. 109 — 130. 

At length with skill great Ennius struck the lyre, 
Lucilius glow'd with all the Muse's fire ; 
Politer Horace blended strength with art, 
And ere he chid, was master of the heart : 
Ardent, impressive, eloquent, sublime, 
Th' Aquinian brook'd no compromise with crime : 
Nor with less lustre that stern satirist shone, 
Whose moral thunders roll'd around the throne, 
Whose vengeful bolts at Rome's oppressor hurl'd, 
Alarm'd the tyrant, and amazed his world. 



Late as I slumber'd in yon woodbine bower, 
And Fancy ruled the visionary hour ; 
Methought, conducted by an unknown hand, 
I roam'd delighted o'er Liguria's land ; 
Beheld its forests spread before my eyes, 
Its fanes, its palaces, its temples rise : 
When lo, the sun-burnt Genius of the soil, 
Ruddy his cheek, his arm inured to toil, 
Before me walk'd, and to a gloomy shade, 
O'ergrown with herbage wild, my steps convey'd ; 
Clear'd the rude path, and with his beechen spear 
Show'd where a laurel, half conceal'd, grew near. 



translator's prologue, v. 131 — 154. xlvii 

" Behold that tree," he cried, " neglected pine, 

u Hang its green bays, its drooping head decline ; 

" The Muses bade it for their Persius bloom, 

" O'ershade his ashes, and adorn his tomb. 

" Rapt Meditation oft by moonlight eve, 

" To wander here, a world unloved would leave, 

" Self-communing: here patient Grief would fly, 

" And lift to heaven the tear-unsullied eye : 

" Here stern Philosophy would muse alone, 

" And Wisdom call'd this peaceful grove her own : 

" Religion too would quit celestial bowers, 

" In this fair spot to gather earthly flowers. 

" But envious thorns, that none its worth might see, 

" Sprang from the ground to hide this beauteous tree ; 

" Haste then, O stranger, to this place draw nigh, 

11 To kill the brambles, lest the laurel die." 

Straight, as he spake, methought an axe I seized, 

(For Fancy smiled, artd with the work was pleased.) 

Already the rude wilderness was clear'd, 

And the green laurel full in view appear 'd ; 

When his dark wings retiring Morpheus spread, 

And the loved vision with my slumbers fled. 

Oft since that hour I've linger'd o'er thy page, 

O youth lamented, at too green an age ! 



xlviii translator's prologue, v. 155 — 158. 

And if the Muse, propitious, hear my strains, 
Assist the labour, or reward the pains, 
That laurel, Persius, which once bloom'd for thee, 
Again shall flourish, and revive for me. 



THE 



SIX SATIRES 



OF 



PER SI US 



PROLOGUE 



JNec fonte labra prolui Caballino : 
Nee in bicipiti somniasse Parnasso 
Memini, ut repente sic Poeta prodirem. 
Heliconiadasque, pallidamque Pyrenen 
I His remitto, quorum imagines lambunt 
Hederze sequaces : ipse semipaganus 
Ad sacra vatum carmen affero nostrum. 
Qiiis expedivit psittaco suum x a k e > 
Picasque docuit nostra verba conari } 
Magister artis, ingeniique largitor 
Venter, negatas artifex sequi voces. 
Quod si dolosi spes refulserit nummi, 
Corvos poetas, et poetrias picas 
Cantare credas Pegaseium melos, 



PROLOGUE. 



JNe'er did I taste Castalia's stream ; 
Nor yet on fork'd Parnassus dream, 
That I should feel a poet's fire, 
Or string the lute, or strike the lyre. 
I leave the Muse's magic ground 
To bards profess'd, with laurel crown'd. 
The gift I offer to the Nine, 
A rustic wreath, to grace their shrine. 
What taught the parrot to cry, hail ? 
What taught the chattering pie his tale ? 
Hunger ; that sharpener of the wits, 
Which gives ev'n fools some thinking fits. 
Did rooks and pies but know the pleasure 
Of heaping high a golden treasure : 
And would their music money bring, 
Ev'n rooks and pies would shortly sing. 



THE 



SATIRES OF PERSIUS 



SATIRE I. 



SATIRA I. 



O curas hominum ! 6 quantum est in rebus inane ! 
Quis leget rnec, min' tu istud ais, nemo Hercule, nemo i 
Vel duo, vel nemo, turpe et miserabile, quare ? 
Ne mihi Polydamas, et Troiades Labeonem 
Prsetulerint, nugje, non, si quid turbida Roma 
Elevet, accedas : examenve improbum in ilia 
Castiges trutina : nee te quassiveris extra. 
Nam Romas est quis non ? ac, si fas dicere : sed fas 
Tunc, cum ad canitiem, et nostrum istud vivere triste 



SATIRE I. 



PERSIUS AND MONITOR, 



VERSE I — i! 



PERSIUS. 

Unhappy men lead lives of care and pain, 

Their joys how fleeting, and their hopes how vain ! 

M. But who will read a satire so begun ? 

P. What this to me — this ? — M. Faith, I '11 tell you, none. 

P. None, do you say ? M. Why, yes, perhaps, a few ; 

But still the number will dishonour you. 

P. Lest a lewd prince and his abandon 'd throng 

Bestow the laurel on a minion's song; 

And must we then reserve the sacred bays 

For those whom Rome's worst profligates shall praise? 

Rely not always on the general voice ; 

Nor place all merit in the people's choice ; 

Let your own eyes be those with which you see ; 

Nor seek in others, what yourself should be. 

For who at Rome does not ? — Dare I speak plain r 

I dare, I must, — to check my rage were vain. 

My spleen o'erflows, I sicken to behold 

A guilty world, in error growing old ; " 



A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. I. V. SO — 25, 



Aspexi, et nucibus facimus qusecunque relictis, 
Cum sapimus patruos : tunc, tunc, ignoscite. Nolo : 
Quid faciam ? sed sum petulanti splene cachinno. 
Scribimus inclusi, numeros ille, hie pede liber, 
Grande aliquid, quod pulmo animze praelargus anhelet. 
Scilicet haec populo, pexusque togaque recenti, 
Et natalitia tandem cum sardonyche albus, 
Sede leges celsa, liquido cum plasmate guttur 
Mobile conlueris, patranti fractus ocello. 
Heic, neque more probo videas, neque voce serena, 
Ingentes trepidare Titos, cum carmina lumbum 
Intrant, et tremulo scalpuntur ubi intima versu. 
Tun' vetule auriculis alienis colligis escas ? 
Auriculis, quibus et dicas cute perditus, ohe. 
Quo didicisse, nisi hoc fermentum, et qua; semel intus 
Innata est, rupto jecore exierit caprificus ? 



PERSIUS. SAT. I. V. I9—46. g 

5s>ch stage of life mark'd by its empty joys, 
he infant and the man exchanging toys ; 
Triumphant vice and folly bearing sway, 
With doting age and vanity grown grey. 
M. But imitate the rest. See, they compose, 
In secret, polish 'd verse, and sounding prose. 
P. Until, at length, demanded by the crowd, 
The turgid nonsense be rehearsed aloud, 
See, at the desk the pale declaimer stand ; 
The ruby beaming on his lily hand ; 
Behind his back his wanton tresses flow ; 
With Tyrian dyes his splendid garments glow ; 
His pliant throat the liquid gargle clears ; 
His languid eye lasciviously leers ; 
The voice accords with the luxurious mien, 
The look immodest, with the tongue obscene : 
Around him close the splendid circle draws, 
Loud is the laugh, tumultuous the applause ; 
And Rome's first nobles, vanquish'd by his lyre, 
Tremble with lusts which his lewd lays inspire. 
And you, old dotard, do you waste your days, 
That fools, at length, may surfeit you with praise r 
Old M. " What, shall we live despised, without a name, 
" Callous to glory, and unknown to fame ? 
" As the wild fig-tree walls and columns cleaves, 
" And clothes the ruin with its mantling leaves \ 
" So all restraint indignant genius scorns, 
11 Luxuriant spreads, and as it spreads adorns." 



10 A PERSII FLACCI SAT. I. V. 26 — 43. 



En pallor, seniumque. 6 mores ! usque adeone 

Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter ? 

At pulchrum est digito monstrari, et dicier, hie est. 

Ten'cirratorum centum dictata fuisse 

Pro nihilo pendas ? ecce inter pocula quzerunt 

Romulidas saturi, quid dia poemata narrent. 

Heic aliquis, cui circum humeros hyacinthina laena est, 

Rancidulum quiddam balba de nare locutus, 

Phyllidas, Hypsipylas, vatum et plorabile si quid, 

Eliquat ; et tenero supplantat verba palato. 

Assensere viri : nunc non cinis ille poetas 

Felix ? non levior cippus non imprimit ossa ? 

Laudant convivse :- nunc non e manibus illis, 

Nunc non e tumulo, fortunataque favilla, 

Nascentur violas ? rides, ait, et nimis uncis 

Naribus indulges : an erit qui velle recuset 

Os populi meruisse : et cedro digna locutus, 

Linquere nee scombros metuentia carmina, nee thus ? 



PERSIUS. SAT. I. V. 47 — 74. I] 

P. Lo, what decrepid age for fame endures ! 
Lo, the pale victim whom her voice allures ! 
No ray of health illumes your languid eye, 
And on your cheek youth's faded roses die. 
Yet you, O times ! O manners! toil for fame, 
And value knowledge only for its name. 
Old M. " But still, 'tis fine to be admired and known, 
" To gazing strangers by the finger shown." 
P. Truly 'tis fine, that fools extol your art, 
That lisping schoolboys learn your songs by heart; 
That when the flush'd voluptuary sups, 
He celebrates your name amidst his cups. 
Here one there is, in purple clad, whose Muse 
Collects the rancid offals of the stews ; 
In drawling snivelling song, delights to tell, 
How Phyllis loved, how constant, and how well- 
Sure, when this favour'd bard at length shall die, 
On his bless'd bones the turf shall lightly lie, 
Unfading laurel shall o'ershade the ground, 
And sweetest violets breathe incense round. 
But our offended poet stops us here, 
Condemns the satire, and reproves the sneer. 
" Who lives," he asks, " insensible to praise, 
" Deserves, and yet neglects the proffer'd bays ? 
" Who is not pleased, that from the bookworm's rage 
" The juice of cedar shall preserve his page ? 
" That page which cooks nor chandlers shall employ, 
" Nor ruthless grocers in their haste destroy." 



12 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. I. V. 44 — 6o* 



Qtiisquis es, 6 modo qucm ex adverso dicere feci, 
Non ego, cum scribo, si forte quid aptius exit, 
Quando haec rara avis est, si quid tamen aptius exit, 
Laudari metuam : neque enim mihi cornea fibra est : 
Sed recti, finemque, extremumque, esse recuso 
Euge tuum, et Belle, nam belle hoc excute totum: 
Quid non intus habet ? Non heic est Ilias Acci 
Ebria veratro ? non si qua elegidia crudi 
Dictarunt proceres ? non quicquid denique lectis 
Scribitur in citreis ? calidum scis ponere sumen : 
Scis comitem horridulum trita donare lacerna : 
Et, verum, inquis, amo ; verum mihi dicite de me. 
Qui pote ? vis dicam ? nugaris, cum tibi calve 
Pinguis aqualiculus propenso sesquipede exstet. 
O Jane, a tergo quem nulla ciconia pinsit, 
Nee manus auriculas imitata est mobilis albas, 
Nee linguse, quantum sitiat canis Appula, tantae. 



PERSIUS. SAT. I. V. 75 — 102. 1 

thou, whate'er thy name, whoe'er thou art, 
Whom I suppose upon the adverse part, 
Think not, when well, if ever well, I write, 

1 feel from praise no genuine delight : 
But praise ought not to be the only end, 

For which our morals or our lives we mend, % 

For which our virtue struggles to excel, 

And seeks pre-eminence in doing well. 

Besides, do all obtaining men's applause, 

Deserve the admiration which it draws ? 

Does drunken Accius glow with Homer's fire, 

Though courts extol him, and though fools admire ? 

From noble pens do no crude numbers flow, 

No cant of elegy, no whine of woe ? 

Have no quaint verses issued from the heads 

Of princes, lolling on their citron beds ? 

The winning art is not to you unknown, 

By which the venal crowd becomes your own. 

Rich banquets crown your hospitable board ; 

Your wardrobe too cast garments can afford. 

But you will have the truth. Shall I be plain ; 

Then, dotard, learn, that all your toil is vain. 

Nor now, when swoln and bloated with excess, 

Trick your old Muse in meretricious dress. 

O ! two-faced Janus, whom the people pass, 

Nor lift the mimic hands to show the ass ! 

No tongue lolls out, no finger points at thee, 

None laughs, or nods, or winks, but thou must see. 



14 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. I. V. 6l— 79. 



Vos 6 patricius sanguis, quos vivere fas est 

Occipiti casco, posticas occurrite sannae. 

Quis populi sermo est ? quis enim ? nisi carmina molli 

Nunc demum numero fluere, ut per leve severos 

Effundat junctura ungues : scit tendere versum 

Non secus, ac si oculo rubricam dirigat uno : 

Sive opus in mores, in luxum, in prandia regum, 

Dicere res grandes nostro dat Musa poetas. 

Ecce modo heroas sensus afferre docemus 

Nugari solitos Grasce, nee ponere lucum 

Artifices, nee rus saturum laudare, ubi corbes, 

Et focus, et porci, et fumosa Palilia fceno : 

Unde Remus, sulcoque terens dentalia, Quinti, 

Quum trepida ante boves Dictatorem induit uxor : 

Et tua aratra domum lictor tulit : euge poeta. 

Est nunc Brisaei quern venosus liber Acci, 

Sunt quos Pacuviusque, et verrucosa moretur 

Antiopa, asrumnis cor luctificabile fulta. 

Hos pueris monitus patres infundere lippos 



PERSIUS. SAT. I. V. I03 — 130. 15 

Yc chiefs of Rome, who have not eyes behind, 

Prevent all insults on the side that's blind. 

What say the people ? " What," the flatterer cries, 

" But that your verse the critic's spleen defies ; 

" That taste and judgment mark each flowing line, 

« The sound harmonious, and the sense divine : 

" That whether feasts or battles be the theme, 

" A hero's glory, or a lover's dream, 

" Thy golden numbers by the Muse inspired, 

" By art are polish'd, and by genius fired." 

Heroic verse unletter'd dunces write, 

And scribbling schoolboys dictate and indite — 

Some praise the fields ; yet wanting skill to sing, 

Confound the tints of autumn and of spring ; 

Forgetting nature, paint a garish scene, 

Of cloudless skies, and groves for ever green : 

Or with rude pencil rustic manners draw, 

Where swarms the village round the kindling straw, 

Where pigs and panniers crowd the bustling street, 

And merry hinds to honour Pales meet ; 

Or show the spot whence Rome's great founders sprung: 

Nor, gallant Quintus, dost thou rest unsung, 

When the dictator's laurel graced thy brow, 

And thine own lictors bore away thy plough. 

Are there not some who love the turgid strain, 

Of drunken Accius, in his moody vein ? 

For whom a tragic rant can yield delight, 

Nor ev'n Pacuvius is too dull to write 1 



l6 A PERSII FLACCI SAT. I. V. 80— 96, 



Cum videas, quasrisne unde hasc sartago loquendi 

Venerit in linguas ? unde istud dedecus, in quo 

Trossulus exultat tibi per subsellia levis ? 

Nilne pudet, capiti non posse pericula cano 

Pellere, quin tepidum hoc optes audire ? DECENTER ! 

Fur es, ait Pedio. Pedius quid ? crimina rasis 

Librat in antithetis, doctus posuisse figuras 

Laudatur, bellum hoc, hoc bellum ? an Romule ceves ? 

Men' moveat quippe, et cantet si naufragus, assem 

Protulerim ? cantas cum fracta te in trabe pictum 

Ex humero portes ? verum, nee nocte paratum 

Plorabit, qui me volet incurvasse querela. 

Sed numeris decor est, et junctura addita crudis. 

Claudere sic versum didicit, Berecynthius Attin, 

Et qui casruleum dirimebat Nerea delphin, 

Sic costam longo subduximus Apennino. , 

Armavirum, nonne hoc spumosurnet cortice pingui ? 



PERSIUS. SAT. I. V. 131 — 158. 17 

Do you demand, whence the disease has sprung ? 
What stains, corrupts, contaminates our tongue ? 
False taste through all our books and writings runs, 
And in the evil sires confirm their sons. 
Pale Affectation quits her sickly bed, 
Opes her dull eye, and lifts her languid head ; 
Ascends the rostrum, the tribunal seeks, 
Rants on the stage, and in the senate speaks. 
Is Pedius charged ? his own vile cause he pleads ! 
For pardon sues, and skill'd in tropes, succeeds ; 
Vices with figures weighs in well-poised scales, 
And shines in metaphor, where logic fails. 
What should we give ; what alms ? if on the shore, 
While round his neck the pictured storm he wore, 
The shipwreck 'd sailor, destitute of aid, 
Sung as he begg'd, and jested as he pray'd ? 
'Tis not enough that wit and skill be proved ; 
Who means to move me, must himself be moved. 
I Poet. But if you blame what orators compose, 
Their flowery diction, and their measured prose, 
You must at least confess that song divine, 
Where Berecynthian Atyn swells the line ; 
Where famed Arion swims on glassy waves. 
And daring dolphin azure Nereus cleaves ; 
Where from the broad-back' d mountain s monstrous chine 
The hero carves a rib of Apennine. 

P. Compared with this, what could poor Virgil write ? 
His style is turgid, and his sense is trite : 
c 



l8 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. I. V. 97-^112. 



Ut ramale vetus praegrandi subere coctum. 
Quidnam igitur tenerum, et laxa cervice legendum ?■ 
Torva Mimalloneis implerunt cornua bombis, 
Et raptum vitulo caput ablatura superbo 
Bassaris, et lyncem Masnas flexura corymbis 
Evion ingeminat : reparabilis adsonat Echo. 
Hax fierent, si testiculi vena ulla paterni 
Viveret in nobis summa delumbe saliva 
Hoc natat in labris : et in udo est Maenas, et Attin : 
Nee pluteum casdit, nee demorsos sapit ungues. 
Sed quid opus teneras mordaci radere vero 
Auriculas ? vide sis, ne majorum tibi forte 
Limina frigescant ? sonat heic de nare Canina 
Littera ? Per me equidem sint omnia protinus alba. 
Nil moror : euge, omnes, omnes bene mira; eritis res. 
Hoc juvat : heic, inquis, veto quisquam faxit oletum. 



PERSIUS. SAT. I. V. I59 — 186. 19 

His wither'd laurel, faded, shrivell'd, shrunk, 

Stands on the blasted wild a leafless trunk. 

But when descending from this lofty strain, 

How sing our poets in their tender vein ? 

2 Poet. To Mitnallonean measures blow the horn ; 

The victim's head let Bassaris adorn ; 

Let Manas lead the lynx with ivy bound, 

Evoe cry, while echo helps the sound. 

P. Enough, enough. I can no more endure 

This pompous stuff, affected and obscure. 

Where is the spirit of our fathers fled, 

Where the stern virtue by our country bred ; 

Where the exalted genius which inspired, 

The force which nerved it, or the pride which fired? 

Are these all gone ? Does nature give offence, 

Or chaste simplicity, or manly sense, 

That themes like these, by poetasters sung, 

Charm every ear, and hang on every tongue ? 

M. Do you not tremble, my unguarded friend, 

Lest some Patrician poet you offend ? 

Still will you wear that most uncourtly scowl, 

Still snarl a critic, still a Cynic growl ? 

P. 'Tis well, 'tis well. Be all their doggerel read ; 

Let courts applaud, and princes nod the head ; 

The same dead colour runs through all they write, 

A trackless waste of snow, where all is white. 

But I no more their faults and failings blame, 

Admired their works, immortal be their fame ; 



20 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. I. V. II3 — 125. 



Pinge duos angues i pueri, sacer est locus : extra 

Meiite, discedo. Secuit Lucilius urbem, 

Te Lupe, te Muti, et genuinum fregit in illis. 

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico 

Tangit, et admissus circum praecordia ludit, 

Callidus excusso populum suspendere naso. 

Men' mutire nefas, nee clam, nee curn scrobe ? nusquam. 

Heic tamen infodiam. Vidi, vidi ipse, libelle : 

Auriculas asini Mida rex habet. Hoc ego opertum, 

Hoc ridere meum tarn nil, nulla tibi vendo 

Iliade. Audaci quicunque afflate Cratino, 

Iratum Eupolidem prasgrandi cum sene palles, 

Aspice et hsec, si forte aliquid decoctius audis ; 



PERSIUS. SAT. I. V. 187 — 214. 21 

Be it resolved, that this be sacred ground, 
That babbling critics be to silence bound : 
Be it resolved, that when occasion calls, 
Unlucky boys do not pollute these walls. 
Yet let me say, when old Lucilius sung, 
Invectives fell not garbled from his tongue. 
With greater art sly Horace gain'd his end, 
But spared no failing of his smiling friend ; 
Sportive and pleasant round the heart he play'd, 
And wrapt in jests the censure he convey'd; 
With such address his willing victims seized, 
That tickled fools were rallied, and were pleased. 
But why should I then bridle in my rage ? 
Why tremble thus to lash a guilty age ? 

Here let me dig — ev'n here the truth unfold 
(As once the gossip barber did of old), 

Here to my little book I will declare, 

Of ass's ears I've seen a royal pair. 

Nor would I now have miss'd this single hit 

For all the Iliads by the Accii writ. 

If such there be who feel the force and fire 

Of bold Cratinus' free and manly lyre ; 

Who, while they see triumphant vice prevail, 

O'er the stern page of Eupolis grow pale ; 

Or nightly loiter with that comic sage, 

Who lash'd, amused, did all but mend his age ; 

Let them look here ; and if by chance they find 

Men well described, or manners well design'd, 



A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. I. V. 126— 134. 



Inde vaporata lector mihi ferveat aure. 

Non hie, qui in crepidas Graiorum ludere gestit 

Sordidus, et lusco qui poscit dicere, lusce ; 

Sese aliquem credens, Italo quod honore supinus 

Fregerit heminas Areti asdilis iniquas : 

Nee qui abaco numeros, et secto in pulvere metas 

Scit risisse vafer, multum gaudere paratus, 

Si Cynico barbam petulans Nonaria vellat. 

His mane edictum, post prandia Callirhoen do. 



PERSIUS. SAT. I. V. 215 — 238. 23 

Let them acknowledge that my breast has known 
Fires not less pure, less generous than their own. 
But let that sordid wretch approach not here, 
Whose utmost wit is some offensive jeer ; 
Whose narrow mind nor sense, nor honour knows ; 
Who mocks the tear which from affliction flows ; 
Who never kindred sigh of sorrow heaves, 
But dares to laugh when suffering nature grieves : 
Hence let such readers fly, though on them wait, 
An iEdile's honours, or Proconsul's state : 
And hence, far hence, be all that vulgar crew, 
Whose theme still is the stable or the stew ; 
Who mock all science, all her laws despise, 
Insult the good, and ridicule the wise ; 
Hence too, that mushroom race of beardless fools, 
An annual crop, the produce of our schools ; 
Who hear unmoved the sage's warning tongue, 
To mark his shoe ill form'd, or gown ill hung ; 
Whose noisy laugh, whose plaudits still are heard, 
When the pert wanton plucks the Cynic's beard. 
Ye thoughtless fools, for greater things unfit, 
The paths of vice for those of dullness quit : 
There kill the time — there linger out your day : 
Grow women's men, and dream your lives away. 



THE 



SATIRES OF PERSIUS. 



SATIRE II 



SATIRA II. 



X1UNC, Macrine, diem numera meliore lapillo, 

Qui tibi labentes apponit candidus annos. 

Funde merum Genio, non tu prece poscis emaci, 

Quae nisi seductis nequeas committere divis. 

At bona pars procerum tacita libabit acerra. 

Haud cuivis promptum est, murmurque, humilesque 

susurros 
Tollere de templis, et aperto vivere voto. 
Mens bona, fama, fides, hasc dare, et ut audiat hospes 



SATIRE II, 



V. I — 20. 

JLet a white stone of pure unsullied ray 

Record, Macrinus, this thy natal day, 

Which not for thee the less auspicious shines, 

That years revolve, and closing life declines. 

Haste then to celebrate this happy hour, 

And large libations to thy Genius pour. 

With splendid gifts you ne'er will seek the shrine, 

To tempt the power you worship as divine. 

To venal nobles you consign the task, 

To wish in secret, and in secret ask ; 

Let them for this before the altar bow ; 

And breathe unheard the mercenary vow : 

Let them tor this upon the votive urn 

Mute offerings make, and midnight incense burn. 

It ill might suit the selfish and the proud, 

Were the grand objects of their lives avow'd ; 

Were all the longings of their souls express'd, 

No latent wish left lurking in the breast. 

When truth or virtue is the boon we seek, 

We can distinctly ask, and clearly speak ; 



28 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. II. V. q — 20. 



Ilia sibi introrsum, et sub lingua immurmurat : 6 si 
Ebullit patrui praeclarum funus ! et, 6 si 
Sub rastro crepet argenti mihi seria dextro 
Hercule ! pupillumve utinam, quern proximus haeres 
Impello, expungam ! namque est scabiosus, et acri 
Bile tumet. Nerio jam tertia ducitur uxor. 
Hsec sancte ut poscas, Tiberino in gurgite mergis 
Mane caput bis, terque, et noctem flumine purgas. 
Heus age, responde, minimum est quod scire laboro : 
De Jove quid sentis ? estne, ut praeponere cures 
Hunc, cuinam ? cuinam ? vis Staio ? an scilicet hasres, 
Quis potior judex, puerisve quis aptior orbis ? 



V. 21- 



2 9 



But when the guilty soul throws off disguise, 
Then whisper'd prayers, and mutter'd vows arise. 
O in his grave were my old uncle laid, 
And at his tomb funereal honours paid 1 
O Hercules, when next I rake the soil, 
With a rich treasure recompence my toil ! 
Or might I, Gods, to my young ward succeed, 
Urge on his fate, nor Heaven condemn the deed ; 
The sickly child already seems to pine, 
And bile and ulcer hasten his decline. 
Three times hath Hymen's torch for Nerius burn'd, 
Three times hath he to widowhood return'd." 
And now, fanatic wretch, to purge your soul, 
Plunge where the sacred waves of Tiber roll; 
To them each morn the night's foul stains convey, 
And in their waters wash your crimes away. 
To one plain question honestly reply : 
What are your thoughts of him who rules the sky r 
As all our judgments rest on what we know, 
And good is still comparative below ; 
Is there a man whom ev'n as Jove you prize, 
Like him believe beneficent and wise ? 
What, are you doubtful ? such may Staius be ? 
Who is the juster judge, or Jove or he ? 
But let me ask, to Staius did you say 
One half of what you utter when you pray, 
Would he not from you with abhorrence turn, 
And you and all your bribes indignant spurn ? 






3° A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. II. V. 21 — 37. 



Hoc igitur, quo tu Jovis aurem impellere tentas, 
Die agedum Staio : pro Jupiter 6 bone, clamet. 
Jupiter ! at sese non clamet Jupiter ipse ? 
Ignovisse putas, quia cum tonat, ocyus ilex 
Sulfure discutitur sacro, quam tuque, domusque ? 
An quia non fibris ovium, Ergennaque jubente, 
Triste jaces lucis, evitandumque bidental, 
Idcirco stolidam prasbet tibi vellere barbam 
Jupiter ? aut quidnam est, qua tu mercede Deorum 
Emeris auriculas ? pulmone, et lactibus unctis ? 
Ecce avia, aut metuens divum matertera, cunis 
Exemit puerum, frontemque, atque uda labella 
Infami digito, et lustralibus ante salivis 
Expiat, urentes oculos inhibere perita. 
Tunc manibus quatit, et spem macram supplice voto 
Nunc Licini in campos, nunc Crassi mittit in jedes. 
Hunc optent generum rex et regina : puellse 



PERSIUS. SAT. II. V. 49 — 76. 31 

But do you hope, that Jove will lend an ear 

To prayers, which Staius would refuse to hear ? 

Do you believe that Heaven at you connived, 

Because its lightnings flew, and you survived : 

Because o'er you the thunder harmless broke, 

While the red vengeance struck the blasted oak ? 

Do you conclude that you may mock your God, 

Because his mercy still hath spared the rod ; 

Because no silent grove's unhallow'd gloom 

By mortals shunn'd hath yet conceal'd your tomb, 

Where, in last expiation of the dead, 

The augur worshipp'd, and the victim bled ? 

What are the bribes with which Jove's ear you win, 

Excusing guilt, and palliating sin ? 

Will prayer do this ? will vows your pardon gain ? 

While entrails smoke, and fatted lambs are slain ? 

Lo, from his cradle, all his parents' joy, 

The superstitious grandam lifts the boy ; 

Well skill'd the lines of destiny to trace, 

She bathes his eyes, with spittle daubs his face, 

Lays the mid-finger on his little brow, 

Extends her hands, and meditates the vow. 

In her quick thought Licinius quits his fields, 

And wealthy Crassus his possessions yields. 

" Let every bliss, sweet child of hope, be thine, 

" Bright stars beam on thee, and mild planets shine. 

" Let rival monarchs bow to thee the head, 

" And queens design thee for their daughters' bed. 



3^ A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. II. V. 38 — 56. 



Hunc.rapiant : quicquid calcaverit hie, rosa fiat. 
Ast ego nutrici non mando vota : negato 
Jupiter hasc illi, quamvis te albata rogarit. 
Poscis opem nervis, corpusque fidele senectae : 
Esto, age : sed grandes patinas, tucetaque crassa 
Annuere his superos vetuere, Jovemque morantur. 
Rem struere exoptas casso bove, Mercuriumque 
Arcessis fibra : da fortunare penates, 
Da pecus, et gregibus fcetum, quo, pessime, pacto, 
Tot tibi in flammis junicum omenta liquescant ? 
Et tamen hie extis, et opimo vincere ferto 
Intendit : jam crescit ager, jam crescit ovile, 
Jam dabitur, jamjam : donee deceptus, et exspes 
Nequicquam fundo suspiret nummus in imo. 
Si tibi crateras argeriti, incusaque pingui 
Auro dona feram, sudes, et pectore laevo 
Excutias guttas, laetari praetrepidum cor : 
Hinc illud subiit, auro sacras quod ovato 
Perducis facies, nam fratres inter ahenos, 



persius. sat. ii. v. 77 — 104. 33 

" To thee their charms may blooming nymphs expose, 

" And still thy footsteps press the springing rose.'* 

May never nurse with drawling canting whine, 

Invoke such blessings on a child of mine ! 

But if she should, good Jove, the infant spare, 

Though robed in white she shall prefer her prayer ! 

You ask strong nerves, age that is fresh and hale : 

'Tis well ; go on. But how shall you prevail ? 

For were great Jove himself to give his nod, 

Your feasts and revels would defeat the god. 

You sigh for wealth, the frequent ox is slain, 

And bribes are ofFer'd to the god of gain. 

For flocks and herds to household gods you cry ; 

Why then, you fool, do daily victims die ? 

Yet does this man the wearied gods assail, 

And thinks by dint of offerings to prevail : 

Now 'tis the field, and now the fold which teems, 

Hope rests on hope, and schemes are built on schemes ; 

Until at length, deserted and alone, 

In the deep chest the last sad farthing groan. 

If to you e'er a present richly wrought, 

If silver cups and golden gifts I brought, 

Your eager hand would grasp at the decoy, 

And your light heart would dance with hope and joy. 

Hence, to the shrine with splendid bribes you run, 

In triumph carried, but by rapine won. 

And now each brazen brother's power you know, 

In bringing fortune, and averting woe. 

D 



34 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. II. V. Sl'—'T- 



Somnia pituita qui purgatissima mittunt, 
Prascipui sunto, sitque illis aurea barba. 
Aurum, vasa Numas, Saturniaque impulit sera, 
Vestalesque urnas, et Tuscum fictile mutat. 
O curvas in terris animal, et coelestium inanes ! 
Quid juvat hoc, templis nostros immittere mores, 
Et bona dies ex hac scelerata ducere pulpa ? 
Hxc sibi corrupto casiam dissolvit olivo : 
Et Calabrum coxit vitiato murice vellus : 
Hasc baccam conchas rasisse, et stringere venas 
Ferventis massae crudo de pulvere jussit. 
Peccat et haec, peccat : vitio tamen utitur : at vos 
Dicite pontifices, in sancto quid facit aurum ? 
Nempe hoc, quod Veneri donatae a virgine puppas. 
Quin damus id superis, de magna quod dare lance 
Non possit magni Messalas lippa propago : 



PERSIUS. SAT. II. V. 105 — 132. 35 

He, who hath promised most, is most revered, 

And wears, in proof of skill, a golden beard. 

Now gold hath banish 'd Numa's simple vase, 

And the plain brass of Saturn's frugal days. 

Now do we see to precious goblets turn 

The Tuscan pitcher, and the vestal urn. 

O grovelling souls, which still to earth incline, 

From mortal nature judging of divine ! 

Must man's corruption to the skies be spread, 

And godhead be by human passions led ? 

'Tis sense, gross sense, which clouds our mental sight, 

And wraps the soul of man in moral night. 

This for mistaken grandeur bids us toil ; 

This steeps the cassia in the tainted oil ; 

This makes the fleece its native white forego, 

With costly dyes and purple hues to glow : 

This seeks the pearl upon the rocky shore, 

And strains the metal from the fusing ore : 

This still by vice obtains its secret ends, 

And this to earth the abject spirit bends. 

But you, ye ministers of Heaven, declare, 

What gold avails in sacrifice and prayer. 

Not more than dolls upon the altar laid, 

To Venus ofFer'd by the full grown maid. 

Let me give that, which wealth cannot bestow, 

The pomp of riches, nor the glare of show ; 

Let me give that, which from their golden pot 

Messala's proud and blear-eyed race could not : 



36 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. II. V. 73 — 75, 

Compositum jus fasque animo, sanctosque recessus 
Mentis, et incoctum generoso pectus honesto ? 
Hasc cedo ut admoveam templis, et farre litabo. 



PERSIUS. SAT. II. V. I33 — 138. 37 

To the just Gods let me present a mind, 
Which civil and religious duties bind, 
A guileless heart, which no dark secrets knows, 
But with the generous love of virtue glows. 
Such be the presents, such the gifts I make, 
With them I sacrifice a wheaten cake. 



THE 



SATIRES OF PERSIUS. 



SATIRE IH. 



SATIRA III. 

v. 1—9. 

JM empe hsec assidue. Jam clarum mane fenestras 
Intrat, et angustas extendit lumine rimas : 
Stertimus indomitum quod despumare Falernum 
Sufficiat, quinta dum linea tangitur umbra. 
En quid agis ? siccas insana canicula messes 
Jamdudum coquit, et patula pecus omne sub ulmo est. 
Unus ait comitum : verumne ? itane ? ocyus adsit 
Hue aliquis, nemon' ? turgescit vitrea bilis : 
Findor : ut Arcadias pecuaria rudere credas. 



SATIRE III. 



THE PHILOSOPHER AND DISCIPLE; OR, 
THE REPROACH OF IDLENESS. 

v. i— 16. 

VV hat, always thus ? Now in full blaze of day 
Sol mounts the skies, and shoots a downward ray ; 
Breaks on your darken'd chamber's lengthen'd night, 
And pours thro' narrow chinks long streams of light : 
Yet still subdued by sleep's oppressive power, 
You slumber, heedless of the passing hour ; 
Of strong Faler ian dissipate the fumes, 
And snore unconscious, while the day consumes. 
See the hot sun through reddening Leo roll, 
The raging dog-star fire the glowing pole ; 
The yellow harvest waving o'er the plain, 
The reapers bending o'er the golden grain ; — 
Beneath the spreading elm the cattle laid, 
And panting flocks recumbent in the shade. 
" Is it indeed so late r" the sluggard cries. 
" Who waits ? here, slaves ! be quick — I wish to rise. 



42 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. III. V. 10 — 28. 



Jam liber, et bicolor positis membrana capillis, 

Inque manus chartae, nodosaque venit arundo. 

Tunc queritur, crassus calamo quod pendeat humor. 

Nigra quod infusa vanescat sepia lympha ; 

Dilutas queritur geminet quod fistula guttas. 

O miser ; inque dies ultra miser, huccine rerum 

Venimus ? at cur non potius, teneroque columbo, 

Et similis regum pueris, pappare minutum 

Poscis, et iratus mammas lallare recusas ? 

An tali studeam calamo ? cui verba ? quid istas 

Succinis ambages? tibi luditur : effluis amens. 

Contemnere, sonat vitium percussa, maligne 

Respondet viridi non cocta fidelia limo. 

Udum et molle lutum es, nunc, nunc properandus,et acri 

Fingendus sine fine rota : sed rure paterno 

Est tibi far modicum, purum et sine labe salinum. 

Quid metuas? cultrixque foci secura patella est. 

Hoc satis ? an deceat pulmonem rumpere ventis, 

Stemmate quod Tusco ramum millesime ducis, 



PERSIUS. SAT. III. V. 17 — 44. 43 

At length, to study see the youth proceed, 

Charged with his book, his parchment, and his reed, 

But now he finds the ink too black to write ; 

And now, diluted, it escapes the sight : 

Now it is made too thick, and now too thin, 

And now it sinks too deeply in the skin : 

The pen writes double, and the point, too wide, 

O'er the smooth vellum pours the sable tide. 

O wretch, whose habits into vices grow, 

Whose life accumulates the means of woe ! 

Dismiss the scholar, be again the boy, 

Replace the rattle, reassume the toy ; 

Repose in quiet on your nurse's lap, 

Pleased by her lullaby, and feed on pap. 

Who is deceived ; for whom are spread these lures? 

Is the misfortune mine, or is it yours, 

That you refuse to listen to the truth, 

And waste in idleness the hours of youth ? 

Of shame sure victim when that youth is pass'd, 

And sorrow mingles in your cup at last. 

Yet art thou young, and yet thy pliant mind 

Yields to the gale, and bends with every wind ; 

Seize then this sunny, but this fleeting hour, 

To nurse and cultivate the tender flower. 

Art thou of riches and of titles vain, 

A splendid equipage, a pompous train ? 

Or dost thou boast a Tuscan race as thine, 

A great, an ancient, and an honour'd line r 



44 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. III. V , 20, — 43. 



Censoremne tuum vel quod trabeate salutas ? 
Ad populum phaleras : ego te intus, et in cute novi. 
Non pudet ad morem discincti vivere Nattas ? 
Sed stupet hie vitio, et fibris increvit opimum 
Pingue : caret culpa : nescit quid perdat : et alto 
Demersus, summa rursus non bullit in unda. 
Magne pater divum, sasvos punire tyrannos 
Haud alia ratione velis, cum dira libido 
Moverit ingenium ferventi tincta veneno, 
Virtutem videant, intabescantque relicta. 
Anne magis Siculi gemuerunt aerajuvenci, 
Et magis auratis pendens laquearibus ensis 
Purpureas subter cervices terruit, Imus, 
Imus praecipites, quam si sibi dicat, et intus 
Palleat infelix, quod proxima nesciat uxor ? 



PERS1US. SAT. III. V. 45 — 72. 45 

Does it suffice, the purple round thee thrown, 

To hail the Roman Censor as thine own ? 

Vain honours all — how little are the proud, 

Ev'n when their pomp imposes on the crowd ! 

I know thee well ; and hast thou then no shame, 

That thy loose life and Natta's are the same ? 

But he, to virtue lost, knows not its price, 

Fattens in sloth, and stupifies in vice : 

Sunk in the gulf, immerged in guilt he lies, 

Has not the power, nor yet the will to rise. 

Great Sire of Gods, let not thy thunder fall 

On princes, when their crimes for vengeance call ; 

But let remembrance punish guilty kings, 

And conscience wound with all her thousand stings ; 

Let Truth's fair form confess'd before them rise ; 

And Virtue stand reveal'd to mortal eyes, 

Astonish tyrants by her placid mien, 

And teach them, dying, what they might have been. 

Does he feel keener pangs, acuter pains, 

Whom, doom'd to death, the brazen bull contains ? 

Was he more cursed, who, mock'd with regal state, 

Around his throne saw slaves and courtiers wait, 

While from the roof, suspended by a thread, 

The pointed sword hung threatening o'er his head : 

Than he, who cries, while rushing on his doom, 

" I go, headlong, I go, nor fear the tomb :" 

— Who from his bosom dares not lift the veil, 

Shudders in thought, and at himself grows pale. 



46 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. III. V. 44~ 63- 



Sa;pe oculos, memini, tangebam parvus olivo, 
Grandia si nollem morituri verba Catonis 
Dicere, non sano multum laudanda magistro, 
Qua? pater adductis sudans audiret amicis. 
Jure : etenim id summum, quid dexter senio ferret 
Scire, erat in voto: damnosa canicula quantum 
Raderet, angustae collo non fallier orcas : 
Neu quis callidior buxum torquere flagello. 
Haud tibi inexpertum curvos deprendere mores, 
Quasque docet sapiens braccatis inlita Medis 
Porticus insomnis, quibus et detonsa juventus 
Invigilat, siliquis, et grandi pasta polenta. 
Et tibi qua? Samios diduxit littera ramos, 
Surgentem dextro monstravit limite callem. 
Stertis adhuc ? laxumque caput compage soluta 
Oscitat hesternum dissutis undique malis? 
Est aliquid quo tendis, et in quoddirigis arcum ? 
An passim sequeris corvos, testaque, lutoque, 
Securus qub pes ferat, atque ex tempore vivis ? 
Helleborum frustra, cum jam cutis aegra tumebit, 



persius. sat. in. v. 73 — ioo. 47 

Trusting to none the secrets of his life, 

Not ev'n confiding in his weeping wife ? 

Oft, when a boy, unwilling still to toil, 

To shun my task, I smear'd my face with oil, 

Great Cato's dying speech neglected lay, 

And all my better thoughts to sport gave way ; 

With anxious friends my partial father came, 

And sweating saw his son exposed to shame. 

Alas, no pleasure then in books I knew, 

But still with dextrous hand the dice I threw. 

None with more art the rattling box could shake ; 

None reckon'd better on the envied stake ; 

None was more skill'd, along the level ground, 

To drive the whirling top in endless round. 

But you, what arts, what pleasures can entice, 

To wander in the thorny paths of vice ; 

You, who so lately from the porch have brought 

The godlike precepts, which great Zeno taught ; 

You, who in schools of rigid virtue bred, 

On simple fare with frugal sages fed, 

Where watchful youth their silent vigils keep, 

And midnight studies still encroach on sleep ; 

You, who have listen'd to instruction's voice, 

And with the Samian sage have made your choice ; 

Are you content to lose life's early day, 

Or pass existence in a dream away ? 

Ah, thoughtless youth, ere yet the fell disease 

planch your pale cheek, and on its victim seize, 



48 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. III. V. 6d. — 8l 



Poscentcs videas : venienti occurrite morbo. 
Et quid opus Cratero magnos promittere montes ? 
Discite 6 miseri, et causas cognoscite rerum, 
Quid sumus, et quidnam victuri gignimur, ordo 
Quis datus, aut metae quam mollis flexus, et unde : 
Quis modus argento, quid fas optare, quid asper 
Utile nummus habet : patriae, carisque propinquis 
Quantum elargiri deceat: quem te Deus esse 
Jussit, et humana qua parte locatus es in re. 
Disce : nee invideas, quod multa fidelia putet 
In locuplete penu, defensis pinguibus Umbris, 
Et piper, et pernas, Marsi monumenta clientis: 
Mamaque quod prima nondum defecerit orca 
Heic aliquis de gente hircosa centurionum 
Dicat, Quod sapio, satis est mihi : non ego euro 
Esse quod Arcesilas, aerumnosique Solones, 
Obstipo capite, et figentes lumine terram, 
Murmura cum secum, et rabiosa silentia rodunt, 



PERSIUS. SAT. III. V. 101 — 128. 49 

Apply the remedy, nor idly wait 

Till hope be fled, and medicine come too late ! 

Contemplate well this theatre of man ; 

Observe the drama, and its moral plan ; 

Study of things the causes and the ends; 

Whence is our being, and to what it tends ; 

Of fortune's gifts appreciate the worth ; 

And mark how good and evil mix on earth : 

Observe what stands as relative to you, 

What to your country, parents, friends, is due. 

Consider God as boundless matter's soul, 

Yourself a part of the stupendous whole ; 

Think that existence has an endless reign, 

Yourself a link in the eternal chain. 

Weigh these things well, and envy not the stores 

Which clients bring from Umbria's fruitful shores ; 

Forego, without regret, the noisy bar, 

Its din, its wrangling, its unceasing war ; 

Forsake that place where justice has a price, 

And may be bought for fish, or ham, or spice. 

But here, perhaps, some blustering son of Mars, 

Will treat my doctrine as an idle farce. — 

" What," doth he cry, " do I not know enough, 

" That I must listen to this learned stuff? 

" I do not wish to be esteem'd a sage, 

M Nor to be held the Solon of my age. 

" I hate the dull philosopher who sits, 

" Pores o'er his book, and talks and thinks by fits ; 

E 



50 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. III. V. 82— 99. 



Atque exporrecto trutinantur verba labello, 
jEgroti veteris meditantes somnia, gigni 
De nihilo nihilum, in nihilum nil posse reverti. 
Hoc est, quod palles : cur quis non prandeat, hoc est. 
His populus ridet, multumque torosa juventus 
Ingeminat tremulos naso crispante cachinnos. 
Inspice : nescio quid trepidat mihi pectus, et aegris 
Faucibus exsuperat gravis halitus, inspice sodes, 
Qui dicit medico ; jussus requiescere, postquam 
Tenia compositas vidit nox currere venas, 
De majore domo modiee sitiente lagena 
Lenia loturo sibi Surrentina rogavit. 
Heus bone, tu palles. Nihil est. Videas tamen istud, 
Quicquid id estt surgit tacite tibi lutea pellis. 
At tu deterius palles : ne sis mihi tutor : 
Jampridem hunc sepeli : tu restas. Perge, tacebo. 
Turgidus hie epulis, atque albo ventre, lavatur, 
Gutture sulphureas lente exhalante mephites. 



PERSIUS. SAT. III. V. 129 — 156. 51 

" Whose crazy head with metaphysics teems, 
" Who deeply ruminates on sick men's dreams, 
u Who holds, that nothing is from nothing brought ; 
" And then again, that nought returns to nought. 
" And is it this, which racks that head of thine ? 
" Is it for this, that thou hast fail'd to dine ?" 
Now roars the laugh, and now the noisy crowd 
Of listening fools, delighted, shouts aloud. 

Some one there was, who finding strength to fail, 
His body meagre, and his visage pale, 
For the physician sent, and told his case, 
And show'd health's roses faded on his face. 
Three days' repose the fever's force restrains, 
And cools the current boiling in his veins. 
Once more desirous for the world to live, 
And taste of all the joys which it can give ; 
He quits his bed, prepares to bathe, and dine, 
And quaff the juice of the Surrentin vine. 
" How wan, how sallow !" the physician cries; 
" Ah, but 'tis nothing now," the sick replies : 
" Nothing, my friend ; the dire prognosis shows 
" Disease, productive of a thousand woes." 
" Nay, pr'ythee, peace — I do not ask thine aid ; 
" My guardian in his grave long since was laid." 
The doctor goes — the sick man's body swells, 
And water gathers in a thousand cells : 
His breath, sulphureous, taints the vernal gale, 
And airs mephitic from his lungs exhale ; 



52 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. III. V. 100 — II 



Sed tremor inter vina subit, calidumque triental 
Excutit e manibus : dentes crepuere retecti. 
Uncta cadunt laxis tunc pulmentaria labris. 
Hinc tuba, candelae : tandemque beatulus alto 
Compositus lecto, crassisque lutatus amomis, 
In portam rigidos calces extendit : at ilium 
Hesterni capite induto subiere Quirites. 
Tange miser venas, et pone in pectore dextram, 
Nil calet hie, summosque pedes attinge, manusque, 
Non frigent, visa est forte pecunia, sive 
Candida vicini subrisit molle puella, 
Cor tibi rite salit ? positum est algente catino 
Durum olus, et populi cribro decussa farina. 
Tentemus fauces : tenero latet ulcus in ore 
Putre, quod haud deceat plebeia radere beta. 
Alges, cum excussit membris timor albus aristas i 
Nunc face supposita fervescit sanguis, et ira 
Scintillant oculi : dicisque, facisque, quod ipse 
Non sani esse hominis, non sanus juret Orestes. 



PERSIUS. SAT. III. V. 157 — 182. 53 

At length unlook'd for death the wretch appals, 

And from his hand the lifted goblet falls. 

The trumpets sound, funereal torches glow, 

Announcing far the mockery of woe. 

On the state bed, the stiffen'd corse is laid, 

And all the honours due to death are paid ; 

O'er the sad relics new made Romans mourn, 

And place the ashes in the silent urn. 

" Thy well told tale does not to me apply, 

" No fever rages, and no pulse beats high. 

" Lay thine hand here ; my heart no throbbing knows, 

" And health for me uninterrupted flows." 

Methinks thou mayst a few exceptions make. 

Did loss of gold ne'er cause thine heart to ake ? 

Does not a fever rage whene'er, by chance, 

A fond maid's soul is pictured in her glance ? 

Say, dost thou sit contented at the board, 

Which just a cake and cabbage can afford ? 

Come, try thy mouth hah — there's an ulcer there, 

Too tender to be touch'd by such coarse fare. 
Thou hast an ague, when heart-chilling Fear 
Bristles thine hair, and whispers danger near: 
And Madness, horrid fiend, is nigh at hand, 
When raging Anger hurls his flaming brand ; 
And thou dost rave in such a frantic strain, 
As mad Orestes would pronounce insane ? 



THE 



SATIRES OF PERSIUS 



SATIRE IV 



SATIRA IV. 



V. I — 12. 



Kem populi tractas? barbatum hasc crede magistrum 
Dicere, sorbitio tollit quem dira cicutze. 
Quo fretus ? die hoc magni pupille Pericli. 
Scilicet ingenium, et rerum prudentia velox 
Ante pilos venit : dicenda, tacendaque calles. 
Ergo ubi commota fervet plebecula bile, 
Fert animus calida; fecisse silentia turbas 
Majestate manus : quid deinde loquere ? Quiritcs, 
Hoc, puto, non justum est, illud male, rectius illud. 
Scis etenim justum gemina suspendere lance 
Ancipitis libra; : rectum discernis, ubi inter 
Curva subit, vel cum fallit pede regula varo : 



SATIRE IV. 



-20. 



Imagine that divine Athenian sage 

(At once the shame and honour of his age) 

Who, by the malice of his foes belied, 

A victim to their rage, by hemlock died, 

In scoffing language to have thus address'd 

That beardless youth whom Athens once caress'd. 

" Art thou a statesman? wouldst thou hold the helm? 

And rule like Pericles the subject realm? 

Does sense mature, ere life has reached its noon ? 

Does thy young judgment bring forth fruit so soon? 

Ere yet the down has gather'd on thy cheek, 

Art thou instructed how, and when, to speak? 

Canst thou the tumult's mingled roar restrain, 

Silence command, nor wave the hand in vain ; 

On public good the public mind enlight, 

And lift the torch of truth where all is night? 

No doubt, thou canst in thy experience trust, 

Say what is right, and point out what is just ; 

No doubt, thy way thou always canst discern, 

And men and manners thou hast not to learn : 



58 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. IV. V. 13 — 29, 



Et potis es nigrum vitio praefigere theta. 
Quin tu igitur summa nequicquam pelle decorus 
Ante diem blando caudam jactare popello 
Desinis, Anticyras melior sorbere meracas ? 
Qua; tibi summa boni est ? uncta vixisse patella 
Semper et assiduo curata cuticula sole. 
Expecta : haud aliud respondeat haec anus. I nunc. 
Dinomaches ego sum, suffla, sum candidus. Esto: 
Dum ne detenus sapiat pannucea Baucis, 
Cum bene discincto cantaverit ocyma verna;. 
Ut nemo in sese tentat descendere, nemo : 
Sed prascedenti spectatur mantica tergo. 
Quaesieris. Nostrin' Vectidi prasdia ? cujus ? 
Dives arat Curibus quantum non milvus oberret : 
Hunc ais ? hunc diis iratis, genioque sinistro : 
Qui quandoque jugum pertusa ad compita figit, 
Seriolas veterem metuens deradere limum, 



PERSIUS. SAT. IV. V. 21 — 48. 59 

Thou holdest virtue at its proper price ; 

Fixing thy stigma on the brow of vice. 

But therefore cease, at every public place, 

To show the beauties of thy form and face. 

From all these idle practices refrain, 

And take to hellebore to clear thy brain. 

What have thy pleasures been ? what is thy care ? 

A sumptuous table, and luxurious fare ; 

Of thy fine skin the whiteness to display, 

Preserved untann'd amidst the blaze of day. 

But for thy mind ; — old Baucis at her stall, 

Who ne'er did aught but beets and cabbage bawl, 

Knows just as much — might place, as well as thou, 

The statesman's laurel on her wrinkled brow. 

None looks at home ; none seeks himself to know 

(The only knowledge undesired below). 

But each intent regards his neighbour's mind, 

Sees other's faults, and to his own is blind. 

That man thou blamest ; (him, whose lands extend 

Far as a kite its longest course can bend ;) 

And him thou wouldst consign to every woe 

Which gods award, or wretched mortals know ; 

Because he grudges annual presents due 

To frugal Pales and her rustic crew ; 

Gives to his wearied hinds a scanty meal, 

And dines himself upon an onion peel. 

Lo, at thine elbow an accuser stands, 

Who thy dark deed with foul opprobrium brands ; 



60 A PERSII FLACCI SAT. IV. V. 30— 42. 



Ingemit, Hoc bene sit : tunicatum cum sale mordens 
Caspe : et farrata pueris plaudentibus olla, 
Pannosam faecem morientis sorbet aceti ? 
At si unctus cesses, et figas in cute solem, 
Est prope te ignotus, cubito qui tangat, et acre 
Despuat in mores : penemque arcanaque lumbi 
Runcantem, populo marcentes pandere vulvas. 
Tu cum maxillis balanatum gausape pectas, 
Inguinibus quare detonsus gurgulio exstat ? 
Quinque palaestritas licet haec plantaria vellant, 
Elixasque nates labefactent forcipe adunca, 
Non tamen ista filix ullo mansuescit aratro. 
Casdimus, inque vicem praebemus crura sagittis* 



persius. sat. iv. v. 49 — 76. 6r 

That deed, which covers even Vice with shame, 
While outraged Nature reddens at the name. 
[How truly fair was bounteous Nature's plan ! 
How wisely suited to the state of man ! 
For him her hand had traced a flowery way ; 
Mild was her reign, and gentle was her sway : 
But fury passions, owning no control, 
Seized on her empire, and usurp'd the soul. 
Then simple Nature charm'd mankind no more, 
Her pleasures vanish'd, and her power was o'er : 
Then, undistinguish'd, crowded on the view 
The smiling forms her magic pencil drew : 
Her hand then clothed the naked woods in vain, 
Or threw the flowery mantle o'er the plain, 
Gave form and order to the world below, 
And show'd the source whence thought and being flow. 
Unmark'd we see succeeding seasons roll, 
Revolving stars illume the glowing pole ; 
Unmark'd behold the glorious sun arise, 
Tinging with purple light the orient skies ; 
Unmark'd the spring, on wings of zephyrs borne, 
Hangs the wild rose upon the scented thorn ; 
Unmark'd the cluster bends the curling vine ; 
Unmark'd the tempest rocks the mountain pine. 
All-powerful habit the enchantment breaks ; 
While wonder sleeps, attention scarcely wakes, 
Each soft indulgence blunts the edge of joy ; 
And every pleasure has, or finds alloy. 



62 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. IV. V. 43 — 52. 



Vivitur hoc pacto : sic novimus. Ilia subter 
Caecum vulnus habes : sed lato balteus auro 
Prastegit : ut mavis, da verba, et decipe nervos, 
Si potes. Egregium cum me vicinia dicat, 
Non credam ? Viso si palles improbe nummo, 
Si facis, in penem quicquid tibi venit amarum, 
Si Puteal multa cautus vibice flagellas : 
Nequicquam populo bibulas donaveris aures. 
Respue quod non es : tollat sua munera cerdo : 
Tecum habita : noris quam sit tibi curta supellex. 



PERSIUS. SAT. IV. V. 77 — 96. 63 

Unhappy man takes passion for his guide, 

And sighs for bliss to sated sense denied ; 

Untamed desires impel the vicious mind, 

To God, to Virtue, and to Nature blind.] 

But dost thou hope thy crimes shall rest unknown, 

Hid by the splendour of thy golden zone ? 

Think not that rigid Virtue frames her laws 

In vile compliance with a mob's applause. 

If o'er his lusts the wretch cannot prevail, 

But in the sordid search of wealth grows pale ; 

If to our scorn he can himself expose, 

In drunken riot at the midnight shows ; 

Not all the splendour of a noble name 

Shall hide the folly, or conceal the shame. 

Look at thyself, examine well thy mind, 

To pride, to sloth, to luxury, resign'd ; 

Vicious, yet weak, and arrogant, yet mean, 

Retire, unequal to this troubled scene ; 

Live not of power the tyrant and the fool, 

Nor scourge that empire which thou canst not rule." 



THE 



SATIRES OF PERSIUS 



SATIRE V. 



SAT1RA V. 



AD ANN.-EUM CORNUTUM, CUJUS FUIT AUDITOR. 



v. i— 14. 

V at i bus hie mos est, centum sibi poscere voces, 
Centum ora et linguas optare in carmina centum : 
Fabula seu moesto ponatur hianda tragcedo, 
Vulnera seu Parthi ducentis ab inguine ferrum. 
Quorsum hasc ? aut quantas robusti carminis offas 
Ingeris, ut par sit centeno gutture niti ? 
Grande locuturi, nebulas Helicone legunto : 
Si quibus aut Prognes, aut si quibus olla Thyestze 
Fervebit, saepe insulso ccenanda Glyconi. 
Tu neque anhelanti, coquitur dum massa camino, 
Folle premis ventos ; nee clauso murmure raucus 
Nescio quid tecum grave cornicaris inepte, 
T^Tec stloppo tumidas intendis rumpere buccas. 
Verba togas sequeris, junctura callidus acri, 



SATIRE V, 



PERSIUS AND CORNUTUS, 



V. I — 16. 



fOETS, whene'er they sing, do still invite 
An hundred tongues to utter what they write : 
Whether the tragic Muse the tale rehearse, 
Or deeds in arms be told in epic verse. 
C. But wherefore thus ? for what bombast of thine 
Must all these hundred tongues in concert join ? 
Let him for sounding words and fustian seek, 
Who loves on themes of import high to speak ; 
Who all his sense in lofty language shrouds, 
And gropes on Helicon amidst the clouds. 
If such there be, who loving things obscure, 
Horrors delight, and Progne's feasts allure ; 
Who sit well pleased where Glyco is the guest, 
And share the banquet for Thyestes dress'd ; 
It is not thine to brood o'er dark designs, 
Or utterance give to empty sounding lines. 



68 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. V. V- 15 — 34. 



Ore teres modico, pallentes radere mores 
Doctus, et ingenuo culpam defigere ludo. 
Hinc trahe qua; dicas : mensasque relinque Mycenis 
Cum capite et pedibus : plebeiaque prandia noris. 
Non equidem hoc studeo, bullatis ut mihi nugis 
Pagina turgescat, dare pondus idonea fumo. 
Secreti loquimur : tibi nunc hortante Camena 
Excutienda damus prascordia : quantaque nostras 
Pars tua sit Cornute animae, tibi dulcis amice 
Ostendisse juvat : pulsa, dignoscere caulus 
Quid solidum crepet, et pictae tectoria lingua;. 
His ego centenas ausim deposcere voces : 
Ut quantum mihi te sinuoso in pectore fixi, 
Voce traham pura : totumque hoc verba resignent, 
Quod latet arcana non enarrabile fibra. 
Cum primum pavido custos mihi purpura cessit, 
Bullaque succinctis Laribus donata pependit : 
Cum blandi comites, totaque impune Suburra 
Permisit sparsisse oculos jam candidus umbo : 
Cumque iter ambiguum est, et vitas nescius error 



PERSIUS. SAT. V. V. 17— 44. 69 

But thee the Muses and the arts engage, 

Well taught to lash the vices of the age ; 

Skill'd in smooth words keen satire to convey, 

And faults to censure, whilst thou seem'st in play ; 

Hence know thy task, let Atreus feast prepare, 

Rest thou contented with plebeian fare. 

P. 'Tis true, on lofty themes I seldom dvvel , 

Nor love with empty sounds my verse to swell. 

But now, my gentle friend, while thus the hours, 

While even the inspiring Muse herself is ours, 

Let me my heart unfold, and there disclose 

The generous love which for Cornutus glows. 

An hundred voices now I dare to ask, 

For praising thee becomes thy poet's task : 

Nor think these words a flattering Muse has sung \ 

They fall not varnish 'd from a faithless tongue : 

They leave my bosom to thy view reveal'd, 

And own the secret which it long conceal'd. 

When first, a timid youth, I knew the town, 

Exchanged the purple for the virile gown, 

The golden bulla from my neck unstrung, 

The sacred bauble by the Lares hung, 

From harsh restraint the first enlargement knew, 

And crowds of parasites around me drew ; 

When the white shield, by youthful warriors worn, 

Through all the streets of Rome by me was borne ; 

When too the martial dress forbade reproof, 

And kept each friendly monitor aloof: 



7<D A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. V. V. 35 — 52. 



Diducit trepidas ramosa in compita mentes, 

Me tibi supposui : teneros tu suscipis annos 

Socratico Cornute sinu : tunc fallere sellers 

Apposita intortos extendit regula mores : 

Et premitur ratione animus, vincique laborat, 

Artifkemque tuo ducit sub pollice vultum. 

Tecum etenim longos memini consumere soles, 

Et tecum primas epulis decerpere noctes. 

Unum opus, et requiem pariter disponimus ambo, 

Atque verecunda laxamus seria mensa. 

Non equidem hoc dubites, amboruin fcedere certo 

Consentire dies, et ab uno sidere duci. 

Nostra vel aequali suspendit tempora Libra 

Parca tenax veri, seu nata fidelibus hora 

Dividit in Geminos concordia fata duorum : 

Saturnumque gravem nostro Jove frangimus una. 

Nescio quod, certe est quod me tibi temperat, astrum, 

Mille hominum species, et rerum discolor usus : 



PERSIUS. SAT. V. V. 45 — 72. 71 

At that green age, when error most beguiles, 

And Vice puts on her most seductive smiles, 

Allures from Virtue unsuspecting youth, 

And teaches Folly to abandon truth ; 

To thee, Cornutus, I myself resign'd, 

To thee entrusted my uncultured mind. 

Thy gentle bosom, O Socratic sage, 

Proved the best refuge to my tender age : 

Train'd by thy hand, and moulded by thy will, 

I was thy scholar and companion still ; 

With thee I saw the summer sun arise, 

With thee beheld him gild the evening skies: 

Well pleased from feasts the twilight hours to steal, 

And share with thee a philosophic meal. 

On us, my friend, like fortune still awaits, 

And stars consenting have conjoin'd our fates. 

Whether by chance our lives were both begun, 

When equal Libra had received the sun ; 

Whether our lots the Twins between them share, 

And those, who love like them, have made their care ; 

Whether malignant Saturn's clouded hour 

Was cross'd for us, by Jove's prevailing power ; 

The stars I know not, which do thus combine 

To regulate my destiny by thine. 

Of men and manners there are various kinds, 

And life seems still to alter with our minds ; 

By turns the picture renovates and fades, 

Its colours shifting to a thousand shades : 



72 A PERSII FLACCI SAT.V. V. 53 65. 



Velle suum cuique est, nee voto vivitur uno. 
Mercibus hie Italis mutat sub sole recenti 
Rugosum piper, et pallentis grana cumini : 
Hie satur, irriguo mavult turgescere somno : 
Hie campo indulget : hunc alea decoquit : ille 
In Venerem putret : sed cum lapidosa chiragra 
Fregerit articulos veteris ramalia fagi, 
Tunc crassos transisse dies, lucemque palustrem, 
Et sibi jam seri vitam ingemuere relictam. 
At te nocturnis juvat impallescere chartis. 
Cultor enim es juvenum : purgatas inseris aures 
Fruge Cleanthea : petite hinc juvenesque senesque 
Finem animo certum, miserisque viatica canis. 



PERSIUS. SAT. V. V. 73 — 100. 73 

No single passion rules mankind alone, 

But each has one peculiarly his own. 

His Tuscan wares, on India's burning shores, 

The merchant barters for her spicy stores. 

Here, one in drunken stupor loves to lie ; 

Here, one prefers the chase, and one the die. 

Another here, indulging sensual joys, 

His health for Venus wantonly destroys ; 

But when, at length, in all his aking bones 

The racking gout creates the chalky stones, 

When all his limbs distorted by disease, 

Like knotted branches of misshapen trees, 

Proclaim old age and sorrow come too soon, 

An early evening, and a clouded noon ; 

The pallid victim, at himself aghast, 

Mourns when too late enjoyments that are past. 

Thee it delights, by the nocturnal oil, 

In learning's fair and fruitful fields to toil ; 

To scatter round thy Cleanthean corn, 

And youthful minds to polish and adorn. 

Lay up, ye youth, and ye with age grown grey, 

Some mental stores ere nature feel decay ; 

Propose some purpose to the active mind, 

Ere yet your setting sun be quite declined ; 

Ere yet you reach that last unhappy state, 

Where life stands trembling on the brink of fate ; 

When all the prospects of this world are o'er, 

Pleasures delight, and hope deceives no more. 



74 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. V. V. 66— 8o. 



Cras hoc fiet. Idem eras fiet, quid ? quasi magnum 
Nempe diem donas, sed cum lux altera venit, 
Jam cras hesternum consumsimus : ecce aliud cras 
Egerit hos annos, et semper paulum erit ultra. 
Nam quamvis prope te, quamvis temone sub uno 
Vertentem sese, frustra sectabere canthum, 
Cum rota posterior curras, et in axe secundo. 
Libertate opus est : non hac, ut quisque Velina 
Publius emeruit scabiosum tesserul-a far 
Possidet. Heu steriles veri, quibus una Quiritem 
Vertigo facit : hie Dama est non tressis agaso, 
Vappa, et lippus, et in tenui farragine mendax. 
Verterit hunc dominus, momento turbinis exit 
Marcas Dama, papse ! Marco spondente recusas 
Credere tu nummos ? Marco sub judice palles ? 



PERSIUS. SAT. V. V. 101 — 128. 

" To-morrow we shall choose another way." 

To-morrow passes like the former day. 

" Ah, but to-morrow something shall be done, 

" We wait impatient for to-morrow's sun." 

But still another day is like the last ; 

The hour of promised change already past. 

See, while the victor's chariot gains the goal, 

The rapid wheels on glowing axles roll ; 

Their circling orbs impell'd with equal force, 

With equal swiftness trace each other's course ; 

The hinder pair pursue the first in vain, 

Their distance keep, but no advantage gain : 

So flying Time is follow'd close by you, 

He still escaping, while you still pursue. 

Let us speak out. 'Tis liberty we need : 

Not such as wretches vaunt, from bondage freed : 

Not such as every Publius may obtain, 

Who takes his quota of divided grain, 

Who dares the rights of citizen to claim, 

And fix a proud praenomen to his name. 

Besotted race ! is thus a Roman made ? 

By this one turn are all his rights convey 'd? 

Here Dama stands, a worthless stupid slave, 

A blear-ey'd villain, and a cheating knave : 

But let his master turn this varlet round, 

And Marcus Dama is a Roman found. 

Marcus is bound : your money do you grudge ? 

You need not fear, 'tis Marcus sits as judge. 



75 



"}6 A. PERSII FLACC1 SAT. V. V. 8l C 



Marcus dixit : ita est, adsigna Marce tabellas. 

Hasc mera libertas, hoc nobis pilea donant. 

An quisquam est alius liber, nisi ducere vitam 

Cui licet, ut voluit ? licet, ut volo, vivere : non sim 

Liberior Bruto ? Mendose colligis, inquit 

Stoicus hie, aurem mordaci lotus aceto. 

Hoc (reliquum accipio), licet illud, et, ut volo. 

tolle, 
Vindicta, postquam meus a praetore recessi, 
Cur mihi non liceat jussit quodcunque voluntas, 
Excepto si quid Masuri rubrica vetavit ? 
Disce : sed ira cadat naso, rugosaque sanna, 
Dum veteres avias tibi de pulmone revello. 
Non praaoris erat stultis dare tenuia rerum 
Officia, atque usum rapidae permittere vitae. 
Sambucam citius caloni aptaveris alto. 
Stat contra ratio, et secretam garrit in aurem, 
Ne liceat facere id, quod quis vitiabit agendo. 
Publica lex hominum, naturaque continet hoc fas, 



PERSIUS. SAT. V. V. 120, — 156. 77 

Marcus said thus. — Nay, then the thing is true. 

Marcus, the will must first be sign'd by you. 

O sacred Liberty ! O name profaned ! 

Are thus thine honours, and thy rights obtain'd ? 

No, 'tis not wealth which lifts the soul to thee, 

Nor yet thy cap, which makes the wearer free ! 

*' My pleasure is my law, by that I go. 

" What greater freedom did your Brutus know ?" 

Ah, falsely urged, the indignant Stoic cries, 

(Who thinks the truly free to be the wise). 

" E'er since the praetor's wand hath changed my doom, 

" And made the slave the citizen of Rome, 

" My will alone my passions have obey'd, 

" Save where my country and its laws forbade." 

Listen ; but lay that haughty frown aside, 

That sneer, produced by prejudice and pride ; 

Whilst from thy breast those noxious weeds I tear, 

Which fools have sown, and thou hast nurtured there. 

'Tis not the praetor, nor the praetor's wand, 

Which o'er itself can give the mind command, 

Which can instruct the unreflecting fool 

The stormy passions of his soul to rule ; 

To fix the lifted eye on things sublime, 

While his swift bark glides down the stream of time. 

The clown shall sooner catch the poet's fire, 

And touch with skilful hand the tuneful lyre. 

Reason condemns the unavailing toil, 

Which fondly cultivates a sterile soil ; 



78 A* PERSII FLACCI SAT. V. V. 99—I19. 



Ut teneat vetitos inscitia debilis actus. 
Diluis helleborum certo compescere puncto 
Nescius examen : vetat hoc natura medendi, 
Navem si poscat sibi peronatus arator 
Luciferi rudis, exclamet Melicerta perisse 
Frontem de rebus. Tibi recto vivere talo 
Ars dedit ? et veri speciera dignoscere calles, 
Ne qua subasrato mendosam tinniat auro ? 
Quasque sequenda forent, quaeque evitanda vicissim, 
Ilia prius creta, mox hasc carbone notasti ? 
Es modicus voti, presso lare, dulcis amicis : 
Jam nunc astringas, jam nunc granaria laxes : 
Inque luto fixura possis transcendere nummum : 
Nee glutto sorbere salivam Mercurialem ? 
Hasc mea sunt, teneo, cum vere dixeris, esto 
Liberque, ac sapiens, prastoribus, ac Jove dextro, 
Sin tu, cum fueris nostras paulo ante farinas, 
Pelliculam veterem retines, et fronte politus 
Astutam vapido servas sub pectore vulpem : 
Quas dederam supra repeto, funemque reduco. 
Nil tibi concessit ratio, digitum exere, peccas : 



PERSIUS. SAT. V. V. 157 — 1 84. 79 

Forbids the effort where, through want of skill, 

The end proposed rests unaccomplish'd still. 

The laws of nature and of man declare, 

That ignorance from action should forbear. 

'Tis not for you the medicine to compose, 

To mix the hellebore, a dangerous dose ; 

The grains to weigh, the healing art to try, 

Who know not when the balance hangs awry. 

If, quitting all the labours of the plain, 

The hind should launch his vessel on the main ; 

Indignant Nereids through the deep would cry, 

That shame had left the earth, and sought the sky. 

Has art instructed thee to reason well ? 

Its semblance, from the truth, at once to tell ? 

On fleeting things to set their proper price, 

And mark the bounds of virtue and of vice ? 

Dost thou know when to save, and when to spend, 

A prudent master, but a generous friend ? 

Canst thou unmoved another's wealth behold, 

The treasure view, nor sigh to gain the gold ? — 

When virtues, such as these, belong to thee, 

Then let propitious Jove ordain thee free. 

But if beneath a new and glossy skin, 

The same envenom'd serpent lurk within ; 

If still thy passions do their power retain, 

I must retract, and call thee slave again. 

Imperious reason holds despotic rule, 

And even his slightest actions mark the fool. 



A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. V. V. 120 — 141, 



Et quid tam parvum est ? sed nullo thure litabis, 
Haereat in stultis brevis ut semuncia recti. 
Hasc miscere nefas : nee cum sis castera fossor, 
Treis tantum ad numeros satyri moveare Bathylli. 
Liber ego, unde datum hoc sumis tot subdite rebus ? 
An dominum ignoras, nisi quern vindicta relaxat ? 
I puer, et strigiles Crispini ad balnea defer. 
Si increpuit, Cessas nugator ? servitium acre. 
Te nihil impellit : nee quicquam extrinsecus intrat, 
Quod nervos agitet, sed si intus, et in jecore asgro 
Nascantur domini, qui tu impunitior exis, 
Atque hie, quem ad strigiles scutica, et metus egit herilis ? 
Mane piger stertis : Surge, inquit Avaritia ; eja 
Surge, negas, instat, Surge, inquit. Non queo. Surge. 
Et quid agam ? Rogitas ? saperdas advehe Ponto, 
Castoreum, stuppas, hebenum, thus, lubrica Coa : 
Tolle recens primus piper e sitiente camelo. 
Verte aliquid ; jura. Sed Jupiter audiet : eheu. 
Varo, regustatum digito terebrare salinum 
Contentus perages, si vivere cum Jove tendis. 
Jam pueris pellem succinctus, et cenophorum aptas 
Ocyus ad navem : nihil obstat, quin trabe vasta 



PERSIUS. SAT. V. V. 185 — 212. Si 

In vain for him whole clouds of incense rise, 

In vain he wishes to be counted wise. 

The clown shall sooner, when soft music plays, 

By nimble motion catch the people's gaze, 

With young Bathyllus in the group advance, 

And lead, like him, the Graces in the dance. 

Imagine not, while passions keep their sway, 

That you no master but yourself obey. 

What though you've knelt beneath the praetor's wand, 

And in your turn submissive slaves command : 

Are there not tyrants which usurp your soul, 

Divide your bosom, and your will control ? 

But hark, a voice ; — 'tis Avarice that cries, 

" The day advances fast, for shame, arise." 

Back on his bed the drowsy sluggard falls ; 

Again he sleeps, again his tyrant calls. 

" Arise, I say, arise." But what to do ? 

" Wealth through the world at every risk pursue. 

" Bring luscious wines from Coa's fruitful shores ; 

" Transport from Asia half its vaunted stores ; 

" Dare the wild wastes of Afric's sterile soil : 

" Thy camels load with Oriental spoil ; 

" Defraud, deceive, make money if you can, 

" Nor think that Jove will disapprove the plan : 

" He who on earth for heaven alone shall live, 

" Will know full soon how much the gods can give." 

Awhile the voice of Avarice prevails ; 

Already in your thoughts you spread the sails ; 

G 



82 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. V. V. 142 — 164, 



iEgaeum rapias, nisi sollers luxuria ante 

Seductum moneat : Quo deinde insane ruis ? quo ? 

Quid tibi vis ? calido sub pectore mascula bilis 

Intumuit, quam non extinxerit urna cicutse. 

Tun' mare transilias ? tibi torta cannabe fulto 

Coena sit in transtrO, Vejentanumque rubellum 

Exhalet vapida lassum pice sessilis obba ? 

Quid petis ? ut nummi, quos hie quincunce modesto 

Nutrieras, pergant avidos sudare deunces ? 

Indulge genio, carpemus dulcia : nostrum est, 

Quod vivis : cinis, et manes, et fabula fies. 

Vive memor leti : fugit hora: hoc, quod loquor, inde est. 

En quid agis ? duplici in diversum scinderis hamo : 

Hunccine, an hunc sequeris ? subeas alternus oportet 

Ancipiti obsequio dominos ; alternus oberres. 

Nee tu, cum obstiteris semel instantique negaris 

Parere imperio, Rupi jam vincula, dicas. 

Nam et luctata canis nodum abripit : attamen illi 

Cum fugit, a collo trahitur pars longa catena;. 

Dave, cito, hoc credas jubeo, finire dolores 

Prasteritos meditor : (crudum Chasrestratus unguem 

Abrodens ait hsec) An siccis dedecus obstem 

Cognatis ? an rem patriam rumore sinistro 



PERSIUS. SAT. V. V. 213 — 2-j.O. 83 

The famed Egean in your mind explore, 

And brave the stormy Euxine's barbarous shore. 

But still as on your downy bed you lie, 

You hear the voice of Luxury reply. 

" Whither, O madman, whither wouldst thou run ; 

" Across what seas, beneath what sultry sun ? 

" Is then thy bile so hot, as to require 

" Whole urns of hemlock to assuage the fire ; 

" A sparing supper canst thou stoop to eat, 

" Bad wine thy beverage, and a rope thy seat : 

•* And this, to add a trifle to thy store, 

" And swell the sum, which was enough before ? 

" Ah think, vain schemer, how the moments fly ; 

" The instant now observed is time gone by. 

" Seize then the hour ; thy way with roses strew ; 

" Thy days make happy, for they must be few. 

" Enjoy the world ere yet oblivion be, 

" And dust and ashes all that rest of thee." 

Thus in their turns your masters you obey, 

Pursue now one, and now another way. 

Between two baits have liberty to choose, 

That you may take, and that you may refuse. 

But think not long your freedom to retain ; 

The dog broke loose still drags the galling chain. 

Who has not heard the lover in the play, 

In frenzy raving, to his servant say r — 

" Shall I then, Davus, long my parents' care, 

" Waste all the wealth of which they made me heir ; 



84 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. V. V. 1 65 — 184. 



Limen ad obscoenum frangam, dura Chrysidis udas 
Ebrius ante fores extincta cum face canto ? 
Euge puer, sapias : diis depellentibus agnam 
Percute. Sed censen', plorabit Dave relicta ? 
Nugaris : solea, puer, objurgabere rubra, 
Ne trepidare velis, atque artos rodere casses. 
Nunc ferus, et violens : at si vocet, Haud mora, dicas, 
Qiiidnam igitur faciam ? ne nunc, cum accersat, et ultro 
Supplicet, accedam ? Si totus et integer illinc 
Exieras, nee nunc, hie hie, quem quaerimus, hie est : 
Non in festuca, lictor quam jactat ineptus. 
Jus habet ille sui palpo quem ducit hiantem 
Cretata ambitio ? Vigila, et cicer ingere large 
Rixanti populo, nostra ut Floralia possint 
Aprici meminisse senes ; quid pulchrius ? at cum 
Herodis venere dies, unctaque fenestra 
Disposita? pinguem nebulam vomuere lucernze 
Portantes violas, rubrumque amplexa catinum 
Cauda natat thynni, tumet alba fidelia vino : 
Labra moves tacitus, recutitaque sabbata palles. 



PERSIUS. SAT. V. V. 24.I — 268. 85 

" For Chryses, live the shame of all my race, 

" By them consider'd as their worst disgrace ? 

" Shall I on her with midnight music wait, 

" And hold late revels at a harlot's gate ?" 

" Spoke like yourself;" cries Davus, " haste, and kill 

" A lambkin to the gods averting ill. 

" But should she weep ?" " And dost thou tremble, boy, 

" Lest her correcting slipper she employ ?" 

He who commands himself, is only free. 

If any wear not chains, this — this — is he. 

His freedom comes not through the praetor's hand, 

Nor owes its being to a lictor's wand. 

Are those men free, who wear the chalky gown, 

Canvass the mob, and struggle for renown, 

That future gossips, basking in the sun, 

May tell what feats at Flora's feasts were done ? 

But now the troubled times of tumult past, 

The reign of Superstition comes at last. 

The fatted calf, the milk white heifer slay, 

And feasts prepare for Herod's natal day. 

Let colour'd lamps from every window beam, 

Fat clouds of incense rise in oily steam, 

Bright censers burn with flowery garlands crown'd, 

And blooming violets breathe odours round. 

Let hungry Jews at your rich banquets sup, 

And wines luxuriant sparkle in their cup. 

In whispers mutter the mysterious prayer, 

And tremble at the rites yourselves prepare. 



PERSII FLACCI SAT. V. V. 185 — 191. 



Tunc nigri lemures, ovoque perieula rupto : 
Hinc grandes Galli, et cum sistro lusca sacerdos, 
Incussere deos inflantes corpora, si non 
Prasdictum ter mane caput gustaveris alii. 
Dixeris ha;c inter varicosos centuriones, 
Continuo crassum ridet Vulfenius ingens, 
Et centum Grascos curto centusse licetur. 



PERSIUS. SAT. V. V. 269 — 280. 87 

Now fancied evils fill you with affright, 

Omens by day, and visions in the night : 

Cybebe's shrines you visit with her priests, 

Behold their orgies, and partake their feasts. 

While the blind priestess incantations makes, 

And o'er your heads the sounding sistrum shakes ; ' 

With direful omens all your souls alarms, 

And guards you round with amulets and charms. 

Now should you teach this doctrine to the crowd, 

Some military fool would laugh aloud, 

At a clipp'd farthing all the sages prize, 

Whom Athens valued, and whom Greece thought wise. 



SATIRES OF PERSIUS. 



SATIRE VI. 



SATIRA VI. 



AD CESIUM BASSUM. 



V. I — IO. 

Admovit jam bruma focote, Basse, Sabino ? 
Jamne lyra, et tetrico vivunt tibi pectine chordae ? 
Mire opifex numeris veterum primordia rerum, 
Atque marem strepitum fidis intendisse Latinas, 
Mox juvenes agitare jocos, et pollice honesto 
Egregios lusisse senes ? mihi nunc Ligus ora 
Intepet, hybernatque meum mare, qua latus ingens 
Dant scopuli, et multa littus se valle receptat. 
Lunai portum est operas cognoscere cives. 
Cor jubet hoc Enni, postquam destertuit esse 



SATIRE VI, 



ADDRESSED TO C^SIUS BASSUS. 



v. i — 1 6. 

IIath the stern aspect of the winter sky 

Compell'd thee, Bassus, yet from Rome to fly • 

From crowded streets and temples to retire, 

In Sabine solitudes to string the lyre? 

Dost thou, O wondrous artist, now rehearse, 

In all the majesty of Latin verse, 

How from the first great Cause existence sprung, 

While brooding night o'er inert matter hung? 

Or is gay youth delighted by thy page, 

Or does thy sprightly satire rally age ? 

For me, I seek, while distant tempests roar, 

A warm retirement on Liguria's shore, 

Where circling rocks an ample valley form, 

And Luna's port lies shelter 'd from the storm. 

Thy Muse, O Ennius, sung this tranquil scene, 

This sea caerulean, and this sky serene. 



92 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. VI. V. II — 25. 



Mseonides, Quintus pavonc ex Pythagoreo. 
Heic ego securus vulgi, et quid przeparet Auster 
Infelix pecori : securus, et angulus ille 
Vicini, nostro quia pinguior: et si adeo omnes 
Ditescant orti pejoribus, usque recusem 
Curvus ob id minui senio, aut coenare sine uncto, 
Et signum in vapida naso tetigisse lagena. 
Discrepet his alius. Geminos horoscope varo 
Producis genio. Solis natalibus, est qui 
Tigat olus siccum muria vafer in calice empta, 
Ipse sacrum inrorans patinse piper: hie bona dente 
Grandia magnanimus peragit puer: utar ego, utar? 
Nee rhombos ideo libertis ponere lautus, 
Nee tenuem sollers turdarum nosse salivam. 
Messe tenus propria vive : et granaria (fas est) 



PERSIUS. SAT. VI. V. 17 — 44. 93 

Thy spirit now, its earthly labours o'er, 
Lives in thy verse, and transmigrates no more. 
No tumults here disturb my peaceful life, 
No loud declaimers bent on public strife. 
Unheedful too of winter's rage I sleep, 
Though Auster threaten, and Aquarius weep. 
I view my neighbour's fields, nor yet repine 
That his estate will soon be double mine : 
Though in his wealth I see the upstart roll, 
Yet purest wine still sparkles in my bowl ; 
Though he grow rich, yet I content can sup ; 
Nor hate nor envy mingles in my cup. 
To different men were different lots assign'd, 
And fate still separates, whom planets join'd; 
In life opposed, though at their natal hour 
The Twins ascendant shed their mutual power. 
Here one, on festal day, prepares to dine, 
Dips the dried olive in the salted brine ; 
Picks up the crumb, which must not go to waste, 
And sprinkles pepper on the mouldy paste. 
Another here, no fears of want appal, 
Spendthrift of treasures, prodigal of all. 
For me, I spend the sum I can afford. 
And modest plenty crowns my humble board. 
As corn abounds, so measure out your grain, 
Nor let vain fears your liberal hand restrain. 
If now but just enough the granary yields, 
The future harvest ripens on the fields. 



94 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. VI. V. 26 — 40. 



Emole, quid metuas? occa: et seges altera in herba est. 
Ast vocat officium: trabe rupta, Bruttia saxa 
Prendit amicus inops: remque omnem, surdaque vota 
Condidit Ionio: jacet ipse in littore, et una 
Ingentes de puppe Dei: jamque obvia mergis 
Costa ratis laceras : nunc et de cespite vivo 
Frange aliquid : largire inopi, ne pictus oberret 
Caerulea in tabula. Sed ccenam funeris heres 
Negliget, iratus quod rem curtaveris : urnae 
Ossa inodora dabit: seu spirent cinnama surdum, 
Seu ceraso peccent casias nescire paratus. 
Tune bona incolumis minuas ? et Bestius urget 
Doctores Graios. Ita fit, postquam sapere urbi 
Cum pipere, et palmis venit nostrum hoc maris expers, 
Fosnisecse crasso vitiarunt unguine pultes. 



persius. sat. vi. v. 45 — 72. 95 

With friends, you cry, your wealth you must divide, 

For them, when fortune frowns, you must provide. 

Lo, where one stands, wreck'd on the Bruttian coast, 

His prayers unheeded, and his treasures lost. 

Far floating on the surge, you may discern 

The broken rudder and the painted stern ; 

His guardian gods are toss'd by angry waves, 

His brethren buried in their watery graves. 

Unlock your stores, put forth your saving hand, 

Nor let your kinsman wander on the strand : 

To passing strangers tell his tale of woe, 

And the blue picture of his. shipwreck show. 

Thus urged, you cry that your unfeeling heir 

Will blame the deed, and curse your generous care; 

No honours due shall at your grave be paid, 

No prayers shall bless, no rites shall soothe your shade : 

No crowd of mourners shall attend your tomb, 

No torches burn, no cassia round it bloom. 

How long shall we, indignant Bestius cries, 

Adopt the customs conquer'd Greece supplies ? 

These funeral honours render'd at the tomb, 

Are strange to Italy, are new to Rome. 

Time was, he adds, when foreign climes unknown, 

Our speech was simple, and our style our own ; 

Our frugal fare, the produce of the soil, 

Required no dates, no pepper, and no oil. 

Now through all ranks luxurious pleasures spread, 

And Vice unblushing stands in Virtue's stead: 



96 A. PERSII FLACCI SAT. VI. V. 41 — 57. 



Hasc cinere ulteriore metuas! at tu, meus heres 
Quisquis eris, paulum a turba seductior audi : 
O bone num ignoras ? missa est a Caesare laurus 
Insignem ob cladem Germanas pubis, et aris 
Frigidus excutitur cinis: ac jam postibus arma, 
Jam cblamydes regum, jam lutea gausapa captis, 
Essedaque, ingentesque locat Cassonia Rhenos : 
Diis igitur, genioque ducis centum paria, ob res 
Egregie gestas, induco : quisvetat? aude. 
Vas, nisi connives, Oleum, artocreasque popello 
Largior : an prohibes ? die clare : Non adeo, inquis, 
Exossatus ager juxta est. Age, si mihi nulla 
Jam reliqua ex amitis, patruelis nulla, proneptis 
Nulla manet patrui, sterilis matertera vixit, 
Deque avia nihilum superest : accedo Bovillas, 
Clivumque ad Virbi : prassto est mihi Manius heres. 
Progenies terras ? quaere ex me, quis mihi quartus 



PERSIUS. SAT. VI. V. 73 — 100. 97 

Rome's warlike Genius, humbled in the dust, 
His laurel soil'd, his armour stain'd with rust, 
Walks in her train, assumes her spotted robe, 
And sheathes that sword which had subdued the globe. 
In silken cords his palsied hands are bound, 
His reverend head with folly's cap is crown'd ; 
With him the sons of revelry advance, 
And Bacchants sing, and Satyrs round him dance. 
O thou, my heir, whoe'er thou art, attend ; 
Trust not to me, nor on my wealth depend. 
Lo, Caesar triumphs on Germania's plains, 
And binds her hardy sons with Roman chains ; 
Caesonia shows the trophies won in war, 
The regal mantle, and the gilded car: 
Exulting Rome bids all her altars blaze, 
Through all her streets proclaims the victor's praise. 
Shall I not then, to join the festive joy, 
Unlock my coffers, and my wealth employ ? 
Two hundred gladiators straight I'll pay, 
To grace the shows, and celebrate the day. 
Who blames my conduct ? Do you mutter still ? 
Another word, and I have changed my will. 
Away, away, I soon shall find an heir, 
Though my own stock no kindred plant should bear ; 
I'll seek Bovillae, to Aricia go, 
And on poor Manius all my wealth bestow. 
" What, on a peasant, born of humble birth, 
" A wretch obscure, the progeny of earth?" 
H 



98 A. PERSII FLACCI. SAT. VI. V. 58—76. 



Sit pater: haud prompte,dicamtamen, addeetiamunum, 
Unum etiam, tefrae est jam Alius ; et mihi ritu 
Manius hie generis prope major avunculus exit. 
Qui prior es, cur me in decursu lampada poscas ? 
Sum tibi Mercurius : venio deus hue ego, ut ille 
Pingitur : an renuis ? vin' tu gaudere relictis ? 
Deest aliquid summas : minui mihi : sed tibi totum est, 
Quicquid id est. Ubi sit, fuge quaerere, quod mihi 

quondam 
Legarat Tadius : neu dicta repone paterna : 
Fcenoris accedat merces : hinc exime sumptus : 
Quid reliquum est ? reliquum ? nunc nunc impensius 

unge, 
Unge puer caules. Mihi festa luce coquatur 
Urtica, et fissa fumosum sinciput aure : 
Ut tuus iste nepos olim satur anseris extis, 
Cum morosa vago singultiet inguine vena, 
Patricias immeiat vulvae ? mihi trama figuras 
Sit reliqua ; ast illi tremat omento popa venter ? 
Vende animam lucro, mercare, atque excute solers 
Omne latus mundi ; ne sit prasstantior alter, 



PERSIUS. SAT. VI. V. 101— 128. 99 

'Tis even so; and thus I trace his line, 
And find his origin the same with mine. 
Ah ! think, my friend, while you impatient wait,. 
And grieve that my last hour should come so late ; 
Think, after you in life's career I ran, 
And last should finish, what I last began. 
Your eyes no more their wonted fire disclose, 
From your pale cheek is fled health's living rose : 
Fled too the morn of life, its balmy dews, 
Its purple light, and all its orient hues : 
Can you then hope my funeral pile to raise, 
To place the urn, or bid the torches blaze ? 
But if, by chance, you lay me in the grave, 
Enjoy my stores, nor ask what Tadius gave. 
Nor let me now those selfish precepts hear 
Which misers whisper in a spendthrift's ear. 
Shall I, in times when mirth and freedom reign, 
The joyful voice of merriment restrain ; 
Check the gay spirits kindling with delight, 
When social pleasures flow, and friends invite ; 
On herbs, and cheek of hog, content to dine, 
That you may own the wealth which now is mine ? 
Here, pour the oil, nor spare the spices, boy : 
Time flies apace, we must the world enjoy ; 
Nor hoard for others, who shall spend our store, 
When life and all its joys are ours no more. 
Go, miser, go, in avarice grown old, 
Raise heaps on heaps, increase the mass of gold : 



100 A. FERSII FLACCJ SAT. VI. V. 77 — 80. 



Cappadocas rigida pingues plausisse catasta. 
Rem duplica. Feci : jam triplex : jam mihi quarto, 
Jam decies redit in rugam. Depinge, ubi sistam. 
Inventus, Chrysippe, tui finitor acervi. 



PERSIUS. SAT. VI. V. 129 — 1 2%* I° x 

Go, dare the storms and terrors of the main ; 
Brave hunger, thirst, and pawn your soul for gain : 
As interest bids, be sure to buy or sell ; 
Still as you hoard, the mighty heap shall swell : — 
Now twice, now thrice the sum it was before ; — , 
Now it is five ; now it is ten times more : — 
O good Chrysippus, you who sagely found 
Limits to number, and to space a bound, 
Instruct me here, and your assistance lend, 
That to this growing wealth I find an end. 



NOTES UPON PERSIUS. 



NOTES. 



SATIRE I 



Ver. i. O curas hominum ! O quantum est in rebus 



tnanel 



The Author may be supposed to have commenced a 
satire upon the idle vanities of the world, when his 
friend interrupts him, by asking him, who would read 
so grave a piece of morality. Casaubon has had the 
dexterity to find out, that Persius meant to be facetious 
in this line. He hath omitted none of those things, says 
the commentator, quce satiricum cachinnum possunt movere . 
But it seems, he not only sneered, but conveyed in these 
few words much recondite wisdom. Vides, continues 
Casaubon, quam apto y quam philosophico> quam nyvvm 
principio utatur Persius ? 



io6 



NOTES TO SATIRE I. 



Ver. 4. Ne mihi Poly Jamas, &c. 

By Polydamas et Troides, Persius is generally supposed 
to have meant Nero and his courtiers. But was not 
Polydamas an illustrious character? 

Ot pnv up 'Exjop 'Io-olv, v.ou AMYMONI TlaXv^a^avlt. 

IXlOiS 1 . [A. 

Labeo was a minion of Nero's, who had translated the 
Iliad. 

Ver. 14. Grande alt quid, &c. 

Longinus remarks the difficulty of guarding against 
the bombast in writing ; and observes that authors are 
naturally led to seek what is grand ; but in avoiding 
dryness and feebleness, they become turgid, and vainly 
console themselves, with the reflection, that if they err, 
it is in attempting what is great and noble. 'OKug Floi* 
xtv iii/oii to oiSw sv roig [AzXira. dvo-epvXocxlolctlov' (puvu yoL» 
cnrocvls<; 0; psysSus £<pipsvoi; (psvyovlsg d<rQzvuot,s nou £jj- 
polnlo? xocldiyvtixnv, an lid* oVw?, I-ki tsO' 'vrroQspovlou, ttu- 

Ay.xflw[A eoyivzq. 

Ver. 20. Ingentes trepidare Titos, &c. 

The praenomen Titus was frequent among the Ro- 
man nobility. The praenomen was never taken by a 
roturier. See notes to Sat. v. 



NOTES TO SATIRE I. 107 

Ver. 28. digit monsfrari, &c. 

The Greek expresses this action by a single word, 

Ver. 35. Eliquaty et tenero supplantat, &c. 

Verbisque sonat phrabile quiddam 
Ultra nequitiam fractis — eliquat. 

CLAUDIAN. 

Eliquare signifies to liquidate, and here figuratively, to 
speak in a plaintive tone. 

Supplantare et subnervare, are, as Casaubon ob- 
serves, verba palestra. Supplantare verba — estropier les 
mots. 

Ver. 42. et cedro digna locutus. 

'H xi$bo$ oc.vxipi\ix.ri)/ iroiik ruu <niu\n'xuv tjip xiSpsioiv. 

Athan. 

Ver. 43. Linquere nee scombros metuentia carmina nee 

thus. 
Id esty to leave no books which shall be in danger of 
being used as waste paper in the shops. 

Ver. 47. ncque enhn mi hi cornea fibra est. 

I am not, says Pcrsius, a man of so much apathy as 
to be quite insensible to praise — I only think it neces- 
sary to deserve it, in order truly to enjoy it. 



108 NOTES TO SATIRE I. 

Ver. 50. Non helc est III as Acci 

Ebria vera fro ? 

Casaubonunderstands/>Ze«flby^r/rf. Male. Hellebore 
was taken by persons professing the art of divination, 
who probably drank it, in order to exhilarate their 
spirits, and to work themselves up to a proper pitch of 
phrenzy for acting their parts. The expression of Per- 
sius then means, that the Iliad of Accius, was turgid 
and declamatory, and was destitute of all real poetical 
merit. 

The hellebore, which was known in Italy by the 
name of veratrum, was of two sorts, the black and the 
white. The latter of these was, as Pliny assures us, 
much the stronger. It is only when speaking of the ex- 
ternal appearance of these two sorts, that Theophrastus 
sa y S — tw p^pwjaolt [XOVOV JW(p£/>«V. 

It appears from several authors, and among others 
from Pliny, that before any serious application to study, 
the ancients used to prepare themselves by taking a large 
dose of hellebore. The idlers of the present day would 
not be the more reconciled to the labours of the mind 
by such a diarrhetic discipline of the body. 

Fer. 57. calve 

Pinguls aqualiculus propenso sesquipede exstet. 

Casaubon says, pinguis aqualiculus, quia, ut ex aquali 
funditur aqua, sic ab ilia parte urina. It is very true, 
that aqualiculus is often used for venter. But here Per- 



NOTES TO SATIRE I. I09 

sius probably alludes to those dropsical habits incurred 
by indolence, luxury, gluttony, and inebriety. The 
sense is, " you are an old fool to write verses, when, 
from the size of your paunch, it is evident that you 
have thought much more of indulging your appetite, 
than of cultivating your mind." 

Ver. 70. Nugari solitos Grace, &c. 

The fashion is again revived; and we have bald- 
heads in this country, who employ themselves in 
strumming modern airs on the untuned lyre of Pin- 
dar, and in adapting English strains to the pipe of Theo- 



Ver. 72. et fumosa Palilia, fcsV. 

The Palilia were rural feasts observed in honour of 
Pales. Varro. 

Ver. 76. venosus liber Acci. 

Venosus stands here for asper, durus, horridus. See the 
Thesaurus of R. Stephanus. 

Ver. 77. Sunt quos Pacuviusque, et verrucosa movetur 
Antiopa, y V. 

Pacuvius was the author of the tragedy of Antiopa — 
verrucosa, literally, full of warts, is put here figuratively 
to express the rugged style, in which this tragedy was 
written. 



110 NOTES TO SATIRE I. 

Ver. 78. arumnis cor luctificahile fulta. 

We may here exclaim with Longinus, ov rpuyixoc, Hi 
Ttzvlu aXhot, 7roCrpoilpoc,yu}^x. 

Ver. 85. crimlna rasis 

Librat in antithesis , &c . 

When Longinus says '&m <Je vrxvv a-vvropov, o]i <pv<TEi 
?rw? (TvufMX^st tw uvf/a roc cyjf\\*>oi\a> xou ttolXiv udtwoppotr 
Xztlai •9'*ujtAarw? V7T cavlis — it is evident he means, when 
the figures are well chosen and properly introduced. 

Ver. 87. —an Romule ceves ? 

This is a happy stroke of satire, which can hardly be 
put in English with the force and brevity of the original. 

Ver. 89. cantas cumfracta, &c. See Sat. vi. 

v. 32. 

Ver. 93. Berecynthius At tin. 

What Osiris was to the Egyptians, Attin was to the 
Phrygians ; with this difference, indeed, that the worship 
of Attin was celebrated with rites, whose monstrous ex- 
cesses had no example even in the East. See Arnobius. 

Ver. 99. Torva Mimalloneis> &e. 

Joseph Scaliger having remarked the following words 
in the Nero of Dio, ix&ocpufamv Arriva, % Bxx)(a,g t 
it has been admitted by most of the commentators, who 



NOTES TO SATIRE I. Ill 

have since written upon Persius, that he has here in- 
troduced some verses of the Emperor's. But if the 
author of the life of Persius say truly, that Cornutus 
altered one of the verses of his pupil, ne hoc Nero in 
se dictum arbitraretur ; can it be imagined, that he would 
have suffered the tyrant's vanity to have been affronted 
by this public ridicule, by this unconcealed mockery of 
his talents as a poet \ The cautious preceptor would 
hardly have failed to have repressed the vivacity of his 
pupil in this instance, as well as in the other. Let us 
rather believe then, that the poet's allusions to Nero 
were not quite so plain, as has been imagined ; unless 
we should be inclined to consider the fragment ascribed 
to Probus as a forgery. 

Vcr. 104. summa delumbe saliva 

Hoc natat in labris: et in udo est Manas et At tin. 

This passage is not without difficulty. The word 
delumbe is here used substantively, and signifies feeble- 
ness or debility. Casaubon, in explaining the words, 
// in udo est Manas et Attin, says, et coria et multa alia 
aqua immersa et modefacta robur suum ac rovov priorem 
amittunt : funtquc languida et mollia. Ex eo dixit poeta 
in udo esse pro vypov uvoci molle , femineum atque enervatum 
neque ullo partum labore. 

This explanation does not appear to me quite satis- 
factory. When a foolish, or hasty thing was uttered, it 
was said, in ore nasci non inpectore. See Aulus Gellius, 



112 NOTES TO SATIRE I. 

L. I. c. 15. and Quintilian has the expression verba 
in labris nascentia. 

But these foolish productions, of which Persius here 
speaks, might be said, not only in ore nasci, sed etiam 
summa saliva natare. They were written not only 
without reflection, and composed without judgment ; 
but they were to the last degree superficial and trifling. 

The passage may then be paraphrased as follows: 
Mac fierent si quid in Romanis pristini roboris maneret ? 
Vere ha ineptia aniles nascuntur in ore non in pectore, 
natantque summa saliva, ut super undas feruntur folia 
stramena, et alia leviora. Nunc nihil modeste est, nihil 
studiose, nihil composite dictum ; et (si isto modo intelligere 
sensum Persii forsan placeat lectori] Nero hanc corrup- 
tionem nomine ejus, exemploque Jirmat. 

Ver. 107. mordaci radere vero. 

Cicero has mordax homo ; and Quintilian uses an 
expression similar to our author's. The Italian transla- 
tor of Persius has copied this passage closely, if not 
elegantly. 

Ma che ti cal con verita mordace 
Andar radendo delicate orecchie. 

Ver. 109. sonat hie de nare canina 

Litera. 
Hi c — id est, in liminibus Neronis et procerum, sonare 
litera dicitur, cum irritatus aliquis minas fundi t at : 



NOTES TO SATIRE I. II3 

proprie in canibus hcrrientibus locum habet : non incommode 
hac verba possent tribui : cum autem hicfuerit, in tuis 
verbis mi monitor : sensus erit, intelligo quid velis ; peri- 
culum enim pmsens denuntias, si propositio permansero : 
priorem interpret ationem jure aliquis prceferat. Casaubon. 

' Ver. 113. Pinge duos angues. 

Veteres Gentiles serpentes appinxcre ad conciliandum 
loco sacro reverentiam, quos myst<z suos interpretabantur, 
quemadmodum Christiani crucem appingunt. 

Laurentius de variis Sacris Gentilium. 

Ver. 115 et genu in urn f regit in illis. 

Casaubon says, in iilis, by enallage for in vobis. I 
see no difficulty in understanding the passage, as it 
stands. 

Ver. 133. Si Cynico barbatn, &c. 

This line puts me in mind of a remark of Helvetius, 
which in the course of their experience probably most 
men of letters, who mix in the world, will find true. 
" Le Philosophe qui vivra avec des petits maitres sera le 
ridicule et l'imbecille de leur societe. II s'y verra joue 
par le plus mauvais bouffbn, dont les plus fades quolibets 
passeront pour d'excellents mots ; car le succes des 
plaisanteries depend moins de la finesse d'esprit de leur 
auteur, que de son attention a ne ridiculiser que les 
idees desagreables a sa societe. II en des plaisanteries 
I 



114 NOTES TO SATIRE I. 

comme des ouvrages de parti — elles sont toujours ad- 
mirees de la cabale. 

Ver. 134. His mane e dictum, &c. 

Edictum stands here for edict um ludorum — a kind of 
playbill, which was written by the magistrate, who 
presided at the public shows. This sense of the word 
edictum has escaped Casaubon ; nor is it noticed by R. 
Stephanus. But it seems to have the authority of Seneca 
in the following passage. Nemo qui parturienti filia 
obstetricem accersit, edictum et ludorum ordinem perlegit. 

Nero frequently presided at the games, when the 
Romans were accustomed to see him seated 

ev t*i BairsAaw \Spx. 
and arrayed 

In tunica Jovis, et pictce Sarrana ferentem 

Ex hwneris aulcea togcz. 
Concerning the latter part of this verse the reader 
will see that I agree with Casaubon ; and that from his 
opinion I was induced to give the turn I have done to 
my version. Callirhoeo voce hie [nomen id scorti quondam 
celeberrimi ) universa voluptuariorum studia atque oc- 
cupation <rw£$o%EXu<; intelliguntur . Those, who shall 
read this note of Casaubon's, will judge from this ex- 
ample, if a literal translation of Persius would be in- 
telligible to an English reader. 



NOTES TO SATIRE II. II5 



SATIRE II. 

Ver. 1. Hunc Macrine, &c. This Macrinus was not 
Minutius Macrinus Brixianus, mentioned by Pliny, but 
Plotius Macrinus, a learned man, and, as it appears, the 
friend of Persius. 

Ver. 1. ghii tibi labentes, &c. 

It was a fashion (probably not very general) among 
the Romans, to cast every day into an urn stones of va- 
rious colours, as the person performing this ceremony 
was fortunate or unfortunate : when the day was lucky, 
arid fortune was propitious, the stone was white. 

This custom appears to have been derived from the 
Thracians. Vana mortalitas, et ad circumscribendian se 
ipsam, ingeniosa, computat moreThracitz gentis ; qua cal- 
culos colore distinctos pro experimento cujusque diei in urnam 
condity ac supremo die separatos dinumerat, atque ita de 
quoque pronuntiat. Plin. L. vii. c. 40. 



Ver. 3. Funde me rum Genio. 

Genio estDeus cujus in tutela, ut quisque natus est, vivit. 
Censorinus de Die Natali, c. 3. 

The Polytheist ranked among the number of his gods 
the Genius whom he supposed to have presided at his- 



Il6 NOTES TO SATIRE II. 

nativity ; upon each anniversary of which he raised altars 
to this tutelary deity, crowned them with flowers, and 
burned incense upon them. The joyful day was also 
celebrated by his servants being freed from labour, and 
by plentiful libations of wine being poured forth to the 
health of the master, and in honour of his Genius. 



eras genium mero 



Curabis, et poreo bimestri, 

Cum famuli s ope rum solutis. HOR. 

■ venit natalis ad aras, 



ghiisquis ades lingua vir mult 'er que fare ; 
Urantur pia thurafocis, urantur odores, 

J%>uos tener e terra divite mittit Arabs.— 
Ipse suos Genius adsit visurus honores, 

Cui decorent sanctas mollia serta comas. 
Illius puro distillent tempora hardo, 

At que satur libo sit, madeatque mero. 

TIBUL. L. ii. El. 2. 

It was also the custom to send presents upon the natal 
day in ancient times : 

Sicci terga suis, rara pendentia crate, 
Moris erat quondam f est is servare diebus, 
. Et natalitimn cognatis ponere lardum 
Accedente nova, si quam dabat hostia, came. 

juv. Sat. xi. 

L'aureniius (in his learned treatise de variis Sacris Gen- 



NOTES TO SATIRE II. II7 

tilium) is mistaken, when he says, Nat ale sacrum Genio 
factum sine victima sed cum thure et mero. The reader 
of these notes will remember, how Juvenal commences 
his twelfth satire : 

Natali, Corvine, die mihi dulcior hccc lux, 
Ghiafestus promissa Deis an im alia cespes, 
Expectat. 

Ver. 14. Nerio jam tertia ducitur uxor. 

In the way in which I have rendered ducitur, I have 
followed the opinion of Casaubon, and of Stephanus. 
Some of the old copies erroneously have it conditur. 

Ver. 15. Tiberino in gurgite mergis 

Mane caput bis, terque 

Servius informs us that there were three modes of 
purification among the ancients, aut tada sulphure et 
igne, aut aqua, aut aere. It, however, appears from 
abundance of testimonies, that other lustrations were in 
use. 

Lustrations by water were frequent among the an- 
cients. Even in the lesser mysteries of Eleusis the sym- 
bolical purification of the soul, by ablutions of the body, 
was not dispensed with. Taula p\ <W mvMo -rrxpoc 
rov IAktctoj/, « toj/ xaO^pjOt&i/ TEAain to»? i\o.t\o<ti (AVfypioig. 
It also appears from Hesychius, that of two streams 
which flowed by Eleusis, one, which ran to the sea, was 
consecrated to Ceres, and another, which ran towards 



Il8 NOTES TO SATIRE II. 

the city, was consecrated to Proserpine : OSeu, adds he, 

Ver. 26. An, quia non fibris orium, Ergennaque ju- 
bente, 
Triste jaces lucis, evitandumque bidental. 

Appellat fPersius) bidental ipsum fulguritum, poetica 
licentia : nam vulgo ita vocabant locum cui religio propter 
talem casum accesseraf, qui in medio extincti cadaver babe- 
bat : quid in eo bidentibus sacrificarent , inquit Festus : 
ergo ut Lucilius carcerem appellavit hominem dignum car- 
cere, vel qui scepius carcerem habitaverat : sic Persius 
bidental hominem cui mortuo bidental est factum loco con- 
secrato, et circumsepto, atque altari adjecto. Casaubon. 
Ergenna was probably some ancient soothsayer, whose 
name stands here for the general appellation of augur. 

It was part of the duty of the priests among the an- 
cients, to decide where dead bodies should be interred ; 
and it was likewise their office to expiate by lustration 
and sacrifice those places, which had been struck with 
lightning. Persius does not inform us, if any mark 
served to warn strangers not to approach the tomb of 
the person killed by the thunderbolt. Seneca indeed 
mentions, that the ancient Romans built altars upon 
those spots which had thus been made the scenes of the 
vengeance of heaven. But after all, it may be asked, if 
there was any sign upon the altar, which showed that 
it was a place which might not be approached ? was 



NOTES TO SATIRE II. IIO. 

there any thing in the form of the tomb, or in the sculp- 
ture of the altar, which indicated that the traveller must 
turn aside ? The place of interment being a grove, was 
not remarkable or extraordinary. 

Among the ancients a learned writer has mentioned 
it to have been very common to bury the dead in groves : 
quia ibi Lares via/es, anima beroum et piorum babitare 
dicuntur. 

The custom of erecting monuments to the memory of 
the dead seems indeed to have been of the earliest an- 
tiquity. The Jews distinguished the repository of their 
dead by a monument, which they called p>y. Kimchi 
observes, that it was formed either of one stone, or of 
many piled together — 

According to R. Maimonides tsiun was the same with 
nephasb. " They do not," says the Talmud, " make 
nepbasbotb for the just ; their words preserve their me- 
mory." 

orp-on o'phyV j-wsj paw p« 
•oji-oi on 

Ver. 30. pulmone et Jactibus iinctis. 

The satire conveyed in these words is strong. Is it 
by offering sacrifices, (the poet asks) that you gain the 
favour of heaven r And then, what sacrifices ? the lungs 
and entrails of animals, which you cannot eat yourselves, 



120 NOTES TO SATIRE II. 

you lay upon the altars of the gods. Juvenal imitates, 

and improves the irony of this passage : 

Ut tamen et poscas aliquid, voveasque sacellis, 

Ext a, et candiduli divina tomacula porcl. Sat. x.- 

Ver. 31. aut metuens divum matertera, &c. 

It may be conjectured, that there were females, whose 
business it was to perform that lustration, to which the 
pOet alludes. In this case, the prophetess taking the 
child from its mother, was termed matertera, i. e. mater 
altera. 

Ver. 32. ■ front emque, at que uda labeJla 

In/ami digit 0, et lustralibus ante salivis. 
Dryden translates this, 

" Then in the spawl her middle finger dips, 
Anoints the temples, forehead, and the lips ; 
Pretending force of magic to prevent 
By virtue of her nasty excrement." 

This would indeed have been a very nasty sort of 
lustration. That, to which Persius alludes, was dirty 
enough of all conscience. The spittle was mixed with 
dust, and then rubbed upon the forehead. The middle 
finger (which among the ancients expressed a great deal 
according to the position in which it was held) was 
employed to administer this charm. Thus Petronius ; 
Mox turbatum sputo puherem anus, medio sustulit digito, 



NOTES TO SATIRE II. 121 

frontemque repugnantis sigtiat. I extract the following 
words from Brissonius. At Beda refer/ morem in ecclesia 
inolevisse scriptum re/iquit, ut sacerdotes illius his, quos 
percipiendis baptismi sacratnentls prepararent, prius inter 
cetera consecratis exordia de saliva oris sui nares tange- 
renty et aures, dicentes ephata, &c. 

Ver. 35. Tunc manibus quatity &c. 

This ceremony had a very ancient and illustrious 
example ; and these lines will naturally recur to the 
recollection of the learned reader. 

Au]a£ oy oy tpiXou viou smi xvo~E 7rrjA£ T£ X, s P <riv > 

EjwSV £7T£'J^jU£l/0f All, T CcXXOHTW T£ SiOHft. IMXO. £. 

Spem macram for infant em tenelhtm. 

Ver. 36. Nunc Licini in campos, &c. 

This was probably Licinius Stolo, who, according to 
Livy, was condemned to pay a fine by Popilius Lena, 
for possessing together with his son, more land than was 
permitted by the law which he himself had made. Some 
have supposed that the person meant here, was Licinus, 
and not Licinius. Licinus was a freedman of Augustus, 
and possessed great riches. The immense wealth of 
Crassus is expatiated upon by Plutarch. The word 
mittit here is borrowed from a law phrase ; and the old 
woman is ludicrously represented as putting the child 
in possession of houses and estates in the same language, 



122 NOTES TO SATIRE II. 

which was employed by the Praetor, when he adjudged 
what was due to the right owner. 

Ver. 40. Color autem (says Tully) alius pre- 

eipue decorus Deo est, &c. 

In the mysteries of Isis and of Ceres the priests were 
robed in white. Nee ulla Una eis candore mollitiave prce- 
ferenda, says Pliny, speaking of garments made of cot- 
ton : vestes inde (adds he) sacerdotibus Mgypti gratissima. 
Apuleius affords a yet stronger testimony. Tunc influ- 
unt turba sacris divinis initiata viri, foeminaque omnis 
dignitatis, et omnis atatis, lintea vestis candore puro lu- 
minosi. Ovid says, speaking of the festivals of Ceres, 

Festa pice Cereri celeb rab ant annua mat res 
Ilia, quibus nivea velatce corpora veste, &c. 

Met. L. x. 
again, in his Fasti ; 

Alba decent Cererem, vestes Cerealibus albas 
Sumite, nunc pulli vellaris usus abest. 

The custom of wearing white garments was also 
common among the Druids and the priests of Gaul. 
Plin. L. xvi. c. 43. 

Ver. 42. • tucetaque crassa. 

Tucetum was originally a word taken from the lan- 
guage of the Gauls. See the Thesaurus of R. Sre- 
phanus. 



NOTES TO SATIRE II. 123 

Ver. 48. 1 et opirno vincere ferto. 

Casaubon rightly prefers this reading to et opinio vin- 
cere far to. 

Ver. 56. 1 nam fratres inter ahenos. 

Persius is here supposed by most of his commentators 
to mean fifty brazen statues of the sons of j*Egyptus, 
which stood in the porch of Apollo's temple. These 
statues were consulted as oracles. 

Ver. 58. sitque illis aurea barba. 

Videntur (Romani) aureas barbas diis de se bene me- 
rit is apposuisse. Casaubon. 

Ver. 61. curvce in tern's anima, et cosiest ium inanes ! 
J$hiid juvat hoc, temp/is nostras immittere mores, 
Et bona Diis ex hac scelerata ducere pulpa ? 
Hac sibi corrupto casiam dissolvit olivo : 
Et Calabrum coxit vitiato murice vellus : 
Hac baccam concha rasisse, et stringere venas 
Feruentis masses crudo de pulvere jus sit. 
Peccat et hac, peccat : vitio tamen utitur : at vos 
Dicite pontifices, in sancto quid facit aurum P 
Nempe hoc, quod Veneri donata a virgine puppa. 
S^uin damns id superis, de magna quod dare lance 
Nonpossit magni Messala lippa propago : 
Compositum jus fasque animo, sanctosque recessus 



124 NOTES TO SATIRE II. 

Mentis, et incoctum generoso pectus honestoP 
Hac cedo ut admoveam templis, et farre lltabo. 

Some of these verses have much poetical merit ; and 
contain much excellent instruction. Are there not even 
Christian temples, where they deserve to be written up 
in letters of gold ? 

This satire is founded upon the second Alcibiades of 
Plato, which I recommend to the student to read along 
with it. I have already observed in my Preface, that 
if ever Persius abandons the doctrines of the Stoics, it is 
in this poem. The Stoics contended for the existence 
of a irgomx ; but they adopted with this belief all the 
superstitions of the popular worship. Cicero, in the 
third book of his treatise de Natura Deorum, charges 
them with admitting all the puerile and contradictory 
fables, which had imposed upon vulgar credulity ; and 
alludes to that very practice, of offering bribes to the 
Deity, which Persius condemns with so much just se- 
verity. 



NOTES TO SATIRE III. 125 



SATIRE III, 



Ver. 2. et angustas extendi t lutnine rimas. 

• Hypallage : non enirrt rimes extenduntur, out dilatan/ur, 
quod inepte qui dam scribunt : sed lumen extenditur, trans- 
mittente sole radios suos per rimas. Casaubon. 

Ver. 3. Stertimus, for ster litis. 

Ver. 4. §hiinta dum linen tangitur umbrit. 

Most of the commentators upon Persius have under- 
stood him in this place, to mean eleven o'clock, A. M. 
I have not specified the particular hour. The Romans 
divided the natural day, i. e. from sun-rising to sun- 
setting, into twelve hours. Hence the length of those 
hours was the same only twice a year. The distinction 
made by the Romans, between the civil and the natural 
day, is thus explained by Censorinus. Dies partim na~ 
turalis, partim civilis. Naturalis dies, tempus ab orients 
sole, ad solis occasum, cujus contrarium est tempus nox, ab 
occasu solis ad ortutn ; civilis autem dies vacatur /e?npus, 
quod fit uno cceli circuitu, quo dies verus et nox continentur. 

It appears that the Romans were acquainted with the 
use of sun-dials before the first Punic war. Pliny says, 
that Lucius Papirius Cursor placed a dial on the temple 



126 NOTES TO SATIRE III. 

of Quirinus eleven years previous to that period. He 
observes, that Fabius Vestalis, upon whose authority he 
states this fact, has not mentioned either the method 
according to which the dial was constructed, the arti- 
ficer who made it, whence it was brought, or in what 
author he found it described. 

It is to be suspected, that the Roman dials were not 
very exact. Seneca says, facilius inter philosophos y quam 
inter horologia, conveniet. Salmasius thinks, that only 
eleven lines were drawn on the dials. See what Cas- 
siodorus, who wrote in the sixth century, has. said de 
Horologio Solari. 

Vitruvius ascribes the invention of water-clocks to 
Ctesibius of Alexandria. They were introduced at Rome 
by Scipio Nasica ; and were first employed in the con- 
sulship of Pompey, to regulate the length of the speeches 
made in the Forum. In this the Romans copied the 
Athenians. It appears from Eschines, that in the pub- 
lic trials at Athens certain portions of time were allow- 
ed to the accuser, as well as to the prisoner, and the judge. 
These divisions of time were regulated by a water-clock. 
No orator was permitted to speak after his time had 
elapsed, nor without the water was poured into the clep- 
sydra, could he commence his discourse. Sigonius has 
quoted several authorities to prove the use of the wa- 
ter-clock among the Athenians ; and to show that it 
regulated the length of public orations. I observe, 
however, he has not cited the following words from 



NOTES TO SATIRE III. 12"] 

Demosthenes, in his celebrated speech de falsa legationc, 
Ou yocp tyu x.pwou.ce.1 Tr,<j.spoi/ ova tyx.ii ( u.£|a rx'J-7 uowj> 

It is probable, that the Greeks were instructed by 
the Egyptians in the art of making the clepsydra, or 
water-clock. That ingenious people generally formed 
this machine with a cynoccphalus sculptured upon it ; 
a name by which it is sometimes called. Sunt qui tra- 
dunt, says a learned author, cynocephalum non modo melere 
sed etiam latrare singulis horis. The imaginary animal, 
called a cynocephalus by the Egyptians, was supposed 
to be an ape with a dog's head. It is mentioned twice 
by Pliny, and, I think, once by Solinus. 

I am led to believe that the Egyptians were acquainted 
with the use of sun-dials even in very remote periods. 
I agree with Goguet, that their obelisks were originally 
intended to serve as gnomons : but ingenuity would soon 
contract the size of the gnomon ; and it may be pre- 
sumed, would render it more useful upon a smaller 
scale. This I can the more easily believe, because the 
astronomical science of the Egyptians was undoubtedly 
profound ; and from the accuracy with which they cal- 
culated the greater divisions of time, such as cycles, 
years, and months, it is probable they would endeavour 
to measure its minuter portions with equal exactness. 

It appears, indeed, that the very name given to the 
regular divisions of the day, by the Greeks and Romans, 
is taken from an Egyptian word : and that Horus, though 



128 NOTES TO SATIRE III. 

undoubtedly altered in the termination, is the original 
of cc(>a, hora, whence so many modern nations derive 
words of similar signification. Apud eos (nempe Mgyp- 
tiosj, says Macrobius, Apollo qui et Sol Horus vocatur, 
ex quo et horce viginti quatuor, quibus dies noxque confici- 
tur, nomen acceperunt. 

Some authors seem inclined to throw doubts on this 
derivation made by Macrobius. But I am induced to 
think, if Horus was an appellation of the sun, consi- 
dered with respect to a particular period of the year, 
the etymology is very far from being fanciful or forced. 
Still less will it appear to be so, when compared with 
that of Horapollo, who derives the Egyptian word from 
the Greek "HXios $i 'ilpog uttoIsIuv upcov xpoflziv. It has 
been supposed, upon the authority of Epiphanius, that 
Horus and Harpocrates were the same (Cuperus in Har- 
pocratej. But I am inclined to think with Jablonski, 
that they were distinct. The Egyptians symbolically 
represented the sun under the name of Harpocrates when 
it passed the winter solstice, and rose from the lower 
hemisphere. Again, the solar orb was distinguished by 
the name of Horus, when, immediately before and after 
entering the sign of Leo, it poured upon the world the 
full blaze of its meridian glory. This opinion is con- 
firmed by the signification of the word horus ; which in 
Egyptian, according to Salmasius, was lord or king, 
though more properly the latter. Some have erroneously 
derived it from the Hebrew TtK, fire or light ; and 



NOTES TO SATIRE III. I 29 

Jablonski, with still less appearance of plausibility, 
understands borus to have been an Egyptian word, which 
signified virtus effectrix vel causalis. 

Ver. 5. siccas insana canicula messes 

Jamdudum coquit, &c. 

Nam caniculce exortu accendi solis calores quis ignorat ? 
cujus sideris effectus amplissimi in terra sentiuntur. Plin. 
L. ii. c. 40. One is rather surprised at this from a 
philosopher. 

Ver. 8. turgescit vitrea bilis. 

Horace has splendida bilis. 

Ver. 9. Findor : ut Arcadia pecuaria rudere credas. 

It is thought by some of his commentators, that Per- 
sius makes the young man close his part of the dialogue 
at nemon f and they readfinditur instead of findor. But as 
all the old copies have findor, I think it right to abide by 
them. Casaubon is of opinion, that the young man still 
continues speaking, until Persius interrupts him, by ex- 
claiming — ut Arcadia; pecuaria rudere credas. But the 
words turgescit vitrea bilis, are evidently addressed by 
the poet to the reader. In the satires of the ancients, 
narration and dialogue continually interrupt each other. 
The reading then will be. 

Unus ait comitum. " Verumne ? Itane? ocyus adsit 

Hue aliquis. Neman f" P. Turgescit vitrea bilis. 

C. " Findor." P." UtArcadiapecuaria rudere credas." 
K 



130 NOTES TO SATIRE III. 

These last words Persius addresses to the young rake. 
They are thus explained by Casaubon — sic enim clamas, 
ut asino rudenti et chopEm sis similis. 

Ver. 10. et bicolor positis membrana capillis. 

The inside of the parchment was white : the outside 
was yellow. Hence Juvenal says, 

— atque ideo crocea membrana tabella 

ImpJetur. 

The hair was removed by a pumice stone. 

Ver. n. nodosaque venit arundo. 

As I have translated arundo literally a reed, it may 
perhaps be proper to inform some of my readers, that 
the Romans made pens of reeds, as we do of quills. 
They were seldom of Italian growth, but were gene- 
rally gathered in other countries. Chartis serviunt ca- 
lami ; Egyptii maxime cognatione quadam papyri ; proba- 
tions tamen Gnidiiy et qui in Asia circum Anaiticum lacum 
nascuntur. Dioscorides, in speaking of this kind of 
reed, calls it 7ro\v(rocpxo<;. But it is difficult to under- 
stand this, unless we suppose the fleshy or pithy part 
of the reed was dried before using. See what Tour- 
nefort, Chardin, and other modern travellers, have 
said concerning the reeds employed fcr pens in the 
Levant. 

Some have thought, that the ancients made use of 
quills. They quote the following words of Juvenal : 
tanquam ex diversis partibus orbis 



NOTES TO SATIRE III. I3I 

Anxia prcecipiti venisset epistola penna. 
But the expression of the poet is evidently figurative. 
It is true, an ancient writer informs us in one instance, 
that as news were good or bad, a laurel or a feather 
was ordered to be fixed on the letter, which conveyed 
the intelligence. These authors have mentioned the 
figure of Egeria with greater reason, who is represented 
with a pen in her hand. Beckmann, however, supposes 
the pen to have been added by a modern artist. 

Ver. 13. Nigra quod infusa vane scat sepia lympha. 

The Romans seem to have employed several different 
kinds of ink. Some used the juice of the cuttlefish ; 
others soot mixed with a liquid. The Romans also 
occasionally coloured and gilded their letters. See 
Pliny and Dioscorides. 

Ver. 16. at cur non potius teneroque columbo 

Et similis regum pueris, &c 

I do not think the reader will understand this passage 
the better from Casaubon's note, which, however, if 
he think fit, he may consult. The manner in which 
the pigeon feeds its young, suggested the comparison 
which Persius makes. 

Ver. 17. pappare minutum 

Poscis ; et iratus ynamma, lallare recusas P 
The word pappare here signifies to feed. 



132 NOTES TO SATIRE III. 

I am doubtful if, in following Casaubon, I have not 
ill translated lallare, in the next verse. He thus ex- 
presses himself. Irati autem infantes lallare recusant ; 
hoc est, dormire nolunt, cum eos sive mater, sive nutrix in 
cunis collocatos, provocat ad somnum cantillando. But I 
am rather inclined to think lallare signifies to suck ; 
and thus it was originally understood. The meaning 
of the whole passage then is. — " O wretch ! and every, 
day more a wretch ! are you then come to this pass ? 
But why do you not rather, like a pampered child, or 
like a creature incapable of doing any thing for itself, 
desire that they would feed the poor little bantling, 
and then quarrelling with mamma, refuse to suck. In 
short, act the child completely over again." In a poeti- 
cal version of an ancient and obscure author, I have 
sometimes found, that to give the spirit of the original, 
was the best thing, that could be done ; and not unfre- 
quently, that it was the only thing, that could be done. 

Ver. 20. tibi luditur : effiuis amens. 

Contemnere, sonat vitium percussa, maligne 

Respondetyviridi non cocta fidelia limo. 

Udum et molle latum es, nunc, nunc proper andus, et 

acri 
Fingendus sine fine rota. 
The whole of this passage, is (to use the words of 
Dryden) insufferably strained. I have ventured to 
change the metaphor. 



NOTES TO SATIRE III. I33 

Ver. 25. ■ et sine labe salinnm. 

I am not satisfied with the explanation of Casaubon. 
He says, sali vis inest contra putredinem : inde purum 
vacant poeta, &c. But Persius alludes here to the bright- 
ness of the salt-cellar, which even at the tables of ,the 
poor was generally made of silver. 

Viviturparvo bene, cui paternum 
Splendet in mensa tenui salinum. 
Even in decrees, by which the gold and silver of private 
persons were confiscated for the use of the state, and the 
precious metals were forbidden to be converted into 
plate, the salt-cellar was excepted. See Livy, xxvi. 36. 
Without this explanation, it is impossible to understand 
what Horace means by the word splendet, in the verses 
quoted above. 

Ver. 26. Cultrixque foci sccura patelli. 

It was a custom religiously observed by the ancients, 
to make an offering of part of their meals to the house- 
hold gods, before eating any thing themselves. In every 
house there was a small and perpetual fire, which burnt 
in honour of Vesta. It was into this fire that the con- 
secrated meat was thrown. This custom was at least 
as old as Homer : 

&£o7<ri $i 3w«j dvuyei 

Hoc.Tpox.Xov ov iloupov oJ 1 h Trvpi £ojAAe S'vtj^a?. 
The patella was a small but wide dish used in these 
domestic sacrifices. 



134 NOTES TO SATIRE III. 

Ver. 29. vel quod trabeate sahtas f 

Suetonius says, there were three different kinds of the 
trabea : one consecrated to the gods, entirely of purple : 
another appropriated to kings, of purple and white : a 
third worn by the augurs, of purple mixed with scarlet. 
But it appears from Tacitus that the Roman knights 
also wore the trabea. Tacit, iii. Ann. 2. Rubenius 
says, exist imo tr abeam non forma, sed solo colore a vulgari 
paludamento et chlamyde dlfferre : and afterwards, igitur 
censeo trabeamfuisse chlamydemalbam, purpura pratextam, 
et insuper clavis aut trabibus e cocco distinctam, a quibus 
trabea dicebatur. Ferrarius justly remarks upon this : 
confundit, minime ferendo errore, Rubenius chla?nydem cum 
trabea. 

Ver. 4.6. non sano multum laudanda magistro. . 

One of the commentators and translators of Persius 
has the following curious note on these words. " This 
does not mean, that the master was mad, but that, in 
commending and praising such puerile performances, 
and the vehemence with which he did it, he did not act 
like one that was in his right senses." I cannot tell if 
this gentleman knew his own meaning, he certainly did 
not even guess at that of Persius. The Stoics admitted 
that man only to be wise, who understood and practiced 
their philosophy ; and in the language of their sect, 
all other men were non sani. The meaning of Persius 
therefore is, that the dying speech of Cato, who was a 



NOTES TO SATIRE III. I 35 

Stoic, was much extolled by the schoolmaster, who 
nevertheless did not understand it, and had never fol- 
lowed the wise injunctions it contained. 

Ver. 48. Jure; etenim id summum quid dexter senio ferret 
Scire erat in voto ; damnosa canicula quantum 
Raderet. 

Who was the inventor of gambling? St. Chrysostom 
says, it was the Devil. Considering the consequences 
of this vice, St. Chrysostom's guess is not a bad one. 

Learned men are not agreed about the form of the 
dice used by the ancients. Freigius and Polydore Virgil 
say, that the tesserahad six sides, and the talus four ; but 
Dempsterus and Beroaldus say the very reverse. 

The ancients gave names to all the throws at the 
dice. One was called after a hero ; another after a god- 
dess ; and a third after a courtezan. Venus was the fortu- 
nate throw, or rather that repeated. Thus Propertius, 
Me quoque per ialos Venerem qua rente secundos. 

See also the words of Augustus in Suetonius. 

Ver. 53. braccatis illita Medis 

Porticus. 

The portico is here put by metonymy for the philo- 
phers who taught in it. This portico was the famous 
YloixiAn rott, t which Pausanias informs us, was adorned 
with statues and pictures. Among those which he de- 
scribes, was a painting representing the battles between 



t%6 NOTES TO SATIRE III. 

the Athenians and the Persians. Demosthenes fin 
NearamJ also mentions this picture. Harpocration has 
wrongly accused the Orator of being mistaken about 
this. Anx,^CKpra,usi At^ocOeW, h 7w jta?a Nfai'pa?, Xtyw, 
ttXolIouzqk; yeygoupSoii lv -n? tvowIm g-oa, ' ih\q yxp Ixro 
"pww . Besides the ample description given of this 
painting by Pausanias ; it is likewise mentioned by 
iEschines contra Ctesiphontem : and, indeed, by several 
others. 

It is difficult to say precisely, what was the form of 
the bracca. 

The Persian bracca most probably resembled the 
loose trowsers now worn in Turkey. Strabo gives the 
name of ctm^vpig to this part of the dress. This word 
is ill rendered by subligaculum. 

The Gallic bracca is described to have been vestis 
flux a, intonsaque, ac varii colon's. It may be here ob- 
served, that the dress of the Gauls was exactly similar to 
that worn at present by some of the Highlanders of Scot- 
land. The tartan plaid answers to the sagulum virga- 
tum, and the trowsers to the bracca. The kilt was not 
taken from the military dress of the Romans, as some have 
imagined, but from that of the Celts, as indeed the 
name seems to indicate. What Strabo has said about 
the garb of the Celts confirms me in this opinion. 

Ver. 56. Et tibi qua Samios diduxit lit era ramos, 



NOTES TO SATIRE III. I37 

Pythagoras, the philosopher of Samos, employed the 
letter y as a symbol, whose two branches (as our 
author calls them) denoted the opposite ways of virtue 
and of vice. Casaubon rightly reads diduxit and not 
deduxit. 

Ver. 65. Cratero 



This Craterus was a famous physician. See Horace, 
L. ii. Sat. 3. Cicero. Epist. Porph. de Abstinentia ab 
Animalibus. 

Vcr. 66. Disci te miscri, &c. 

From this verse, down to verse 72, are contained 
some admirable lessons of morality. 

To some readers it will perhaps appear, that the four 
following lines in my translation are not authorized by 
the text : 

Consider God as boundless matter's soul, 
Yourself a part of the stupendous whole ; 
Think, that existence has an endless reign, 
Yourself a link in the eternal chain. 
But those, whom the sapiens braccatis inlita Medis 
porticus instructed in philosophy, would have recog- 
nized in these lines their own doctrines. 

Ver. 79. Esse quod Jrcesilas, &c. 
According to Laertius, Arcesilas was the founder of 
the middle Academy. I do not recollect, that Cicero 



I38 NOTES TO SATIRE III. 

any where mentions the school of Arcesilas under that 
name. On the contrary, when he speaks of the new 
academicians, he seems always to include Arcesilas. 
Nevertheless, as the opinions of Carneadesdid certainly 
differ in some respects from those of Arcesilas, it may 
be right to abide by the distinction of Diogenes. Ar- 
cesilas then was the founder of the middle Academy, 
and Carneades of the new. 

Ver. 80. Obstipo capite, &c. 

Accurate hie irrisor gestumexprim.it hominis meditantis. 
Casaubon. This expression is borrowed from Horace. 
Stes capite obstipo. 

Figentes lumine terram, hypallage, for jigentes lumina 
in terram. 

Ver. 83. gigni 

De nihilo nihilum> in nihilum nil posse reverti. 

This dogma seems to have been pretty generally re- 
ceived among the ancients. Even the philosophic Theists 
did not contend, that God had created matter ; they 
only insisted, that he had given it form, organization, 
and life. 

Ver. 92. Surrentina rogavit. 

Item Surrentina in vineis tantum nascentia, convalescen- 
tibus maxime probata propter tenuitatem salubritatemque. 
Plin. L. xiv. 



NOTES TO SATIRE III. I39 

Ver. 103. Mine tuba candela. 

Gutherius pretends, that there was a triple Nania, 
or dirge, among the ancients in honour of the dead. De 
prima (inquit) qua in exequiarum eomitata, nihil repeto, 
qua £7n>«jJW xou Spyvuh*. ; sceunda canebatur ad rogum, 
tertia ad titmulum. 

The funeral procession was accompanied by trumpets, 
and sometimes by flutes. 

• at hie si plaustra ducenta 

Concurrantqite foro triafunera, magna sonabit 
Cornua quod vincat que tubas. HOR. 

/;/ ccrlo clamor que virum clangor que tub arum. VIRG. 

Nee mea tunc longa spatietur imagine pompa, 

Nee tuba sit fat i vana querela mei. PROPERT. 

Cant abut nicest is tibia funeribus ovid. 

Sicmcesta cecincre tuba;. PROPERT. 

It appears from Servius, that the tibia accompanied 

the funerals of young persons, and the tuba those of 

people advanced in age. Servius in V.JEn. This is 

confirmed by Lactantius. Jubet religio, ut majoribus 

mortuis tuba, minoribus tibia caneretur. 

Also by Statius, 

Cum signum luctus cornu grave rnugit adunco 
Tibia, cui teneros suetum producere manes, 
Lege Phrygian mcesta. 
At the funeral of Claudius, there was such a noise of 
instruments, says Seneca, ut etiam Claudius audire posset. 



I40 NOTES TO SATIRE III. 

It was the custom among the Romans to bury their 
dead at night ; and the funeral was attended by persons 
bearing torches. But perhaps by the word candelce, Per- 
sius alludes to the lamps which were usually placed in 
sepulchres. Of these lamps there are many absurd re- 
ports. It is pretended, that they were frequently found 
still burning at the expiration of many centuries. Li- 
cetus has even written a great deal to prove, that 
there was a species of fire, which can preserve itself 
without consuming the combustible matter which sup- 
ports it. 

Let us hear what evidence is brought in favour of the 
existence of this extraordinary species of fire. 

Scardeoneus argues strenuously for it : Nam (says he) 
circiter anno M. D. circa Ateste Municipium Patavinum y 
dum foderetur a rusticis terra solito altius, reperta est 
urnafictilis, et in ea altera urnula, in qua erat lucerna, 
adhuc ardens inter duas ampullas, quorum altera erat 
aurea y altera vero argentea, purissimo quodam liquore 
plenas. Cujus virtute, lucerna ilia per tot annos arsisse 
creditur, et nisi retecta fuisset, perpetuo arsura. It was 
the urn of Olybius Maximus, in which this lamp was 
found, and upon which we read, among others, the fol- 
lowing words : 

Abite hinc pessimifures— 

Vos quid vultis cum vestris oculis emissitiis f 
Abite hinc vestro cum Mercurio petasato caduceato- 
que. 



NOTES TO SATIRE III. 141 

The story related by the author, who assumed the 
name of Martinus Chronographus , is yet more ridiculous. 
He tells us, that in 1601 a peasant dug up the body of 
a man, whose carcass was so immense in height, ut 
erect urn altce tncsnia Rsmce ex cede ret. 

At the head of this giant, (who it seems was Pallas 
the son of Evander,) stood an unextinguished lamp ; and 
had they not bored a hole in it, and let the oil run out, 
this wonderful lamp might have been burning still. 
Mark, gentle reader, it had already burnt two thousand 
six hundred and eleven years ! 

It has been thought by some learned men, that the 
wick in these lamps was made from the asbestos. This 
extraordinary mineral, of which the filaments are so pli- 
able as to admit of weaving, resists the operation of 
fire. Pliny expressly says, nikilque ignl dtperdit. In 
another place he says of it — ex eo vidimus mappas sor- 
dibus exustis splendescentes igni magis, quam possent, 
aquis. I believe, some experiments have been made 
before the Royal Society, which in a great degree con- 
firm what Pliny advances. 

With respect to the lamps, which the ancients placed 
in the sepulchres of the dead, it is extremely improba- 
ble that they burnt for any great length of time. In a 
small sepulchral vault, the quantity of oxygen gas 
would not have been sufficient to have preserved the 
flame, even if the oil, which supplied the lamp, had 
been inexhaustible. 



142 NOTES TO SATIRE III. 

Ver. io4- crassisque lutatus amomis. 

The amomum is a small shrub, which in its growth 
in some degree resembles the vine. It has a small flower 
like that of the white violet, but its leaves are similar 
to those of the wild vine, which is called bryonia. The 
most excellent kind of the amomum, and that which 
has the most agreeable odour, is brought from Ar- 
menia. Its wood is reddish, inclining to the colour 
of gold. 

Such is the account, which I have taken from Dios- 
corides. The amomum is also described by Pliny, L. xii. 
c. 13. 

Salmasius observes, that the ancients gave the name 
of amomum to various aromatics. It was likewise em- 
ployed to signify perfumed ointments. 

In the ancient world, it was the custom to wash and 
to anoint the dead. Thus Virgil, 

Corpusque lavant frigentis, et ungunt. 

I must not omit here the curious note of Theodorus 
Marcilius. 

Unctionumferalium differentia mult a. I. alia libera 
et prisca; alia servilis et nova. 2. Unctio una mortui 
ante exequias et collocationem: altera posterior. 3. Unctio 
aut mortui est, aut reliquiarum. 4. Unctio aut odoribus 
et aromatis fieri solita, aut ab domine. Alia item multa 
unctionum differentia, sed justi voluminis ea res, non 
perfuntorii comment arioli. (Mehercule, in ea sententia 
sum. J 



NOTES TO SATIRE III. 143 

Ver. I05. In port am rigidos calces extendit. 

After the dead body was anointed, and laid out upon 
the bed, and crowned with flowers ; it was carried into 
the vestibule, and was there placed with the feet opposite 
to the door. (This was called collocatio mortui ; or per- 
haps simply collocatio. See, how Lipsius has explained 
a passage in one of Seneca's Epistles.) 



144 NOTES TO SATIRE I V. 



SATIRE IV. 



Ver. I . Rem populi tractas f 

In this satire Persius severely censures the conduct of 
Nero. He begins by imitating Plato's first Alcibiades ; 
and repeats part of the ironical conversation which 
Socrates addressed, in that celebrated dialogue, to his 
young and ambitious pupil. But the Roman satirist 
soon appears under the disguise of the Grecian sage ; 
and the raillery, which humbled the vanity of the as- 
piring Athenian, is converted into a just and terrible 
invective against the tyrant of Rome. 

It was, indeed, impossible for the poet to censure 
Nero under the name of Alcibiades, without soon and 
plainly discovering the real object of his satire. The 
character of that Athenian, shaded as it is by a thousand 
defects, interests us, even while it offends against mo- 
rality ; even while it amazes us by its levity ; even while 
it displeases us by its inconstancy. Blest with almost 
every advantage, which Nature can bestow — liberal in 
his disposition — brilliant in his conversation — seductive 
in his manners — beautiful in his person — at Athens a 
luxurious libertine— at Sparta a rigid moralist— now 
too easily influenced by the suggestions of ambition — 



NOTES TO SATIRE IV. 145 

now too softly sensible to the charms of pleasure — 
strangely blending the insignificance of a fop, and the 
fickleness of a woman, with the magnanimity of a hero, 
and with the talents of a statesman — Alcibiades per- 
suaded his countrymen to forgive him many crimes, to 
pardon him innumerable follies, and to find him amiable, 
even when he was culpable. How opposite was the cha- 
racter of Nero ! that tyrant flattered only to betray ; and 
betrayed only to destroy. Exceeding the limits of mo- 
deration in the gratification of his desires, and abandoning 
the guidance of justice in the exercise of his power, he 
abused alike the gifts of nature and of fortune. Alcibiades 
loved pleasure, but Nero hated virtue. The vile atrocities, 
which Persius imputes to the tyrant, could never have 
been applicable to the young Athenian, at least while he 
was the pupil of Socrates. Alcibiades, under the in- 
fluence of passion, and corrupted by debauchery, is in- 
deed accused of unjustifiable vices ; but his mind had not 
arrived at that last degree of depravation, which causes so 
many wretches to forget character, to defy opinion, and 
to abandon principle ; which degrades all that is most 
excellent in human nature ; and which by making men 
infamous, makes them also desperate. 

To read this satire may be useful to the young. It 
may help to correct petulance — it may serve to warn 
inexperience — I cannot hope that it will reclaim guilt. 
But from it the young statesman may learn, that even in 
remote times, and in small states, government was con- 
L 



146 NOTES TO SATIRE IV. 

sidered as a most difficult science : from it too, the high- 
born libertine may see, that as the sphere which he 
moves in, is wide and brilliant, his conduct and charac- 
ter are in proportion conspicuous, his vices in proportion 
heinous, and his follies in proportion ridiculous. 

Ver. 7. • fecisse silent i a turb<z 

Majestate manus. 

Lucan, in his first book, says of Julius Caesar, 

tumultum 

Composult vultu; dextraque silent ia jus sit. 

What a picture does this give us of Caesar ! 

It was the custom of orators, and of those who ad- 
dressed the people, that they should obtain audience 
by stretching forth the hand ; which the Greeks call 
vitrv^cc^iv and Kofta.criya£ ) iiv r abw tt\ p^a/u or xocTursKkiw. 
So in the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul, when about to 
speak, is said IkIsTvcci tyjv %«/><* and xcclxa-zieiv rn p^sipt ; 
and so speaks Luke the Evangelist. In the beginning 
of Herodian, the philosopher goes into the theatre, when 
the certamen Capitolinum was celebrated rca re rog p^jpof 
vsvpotli rou Jij^oi/ xoLTzcriya^i,. You may read in the Ha- 
drian of Xiphilinus, that the public criers were accus- 
tomed to command silence to the people always by the 
hand, never by the voice. But it was the custom of 
orators, when they stretched out the right hand, that, 
with the fourth and little fingers shut, they should ex- 
tend the others ; which Apuleius hath left testified in 



NOTES TO SATIRE IV. 147 

his second book. There was another manner of pro- 
claiming silence, concrepatione digitorum. Thus Hiero_ 
nymus ad Rusticiun monacbum. — " As soon as the table 
being placed, he had exhibited a pile of books, with 
the eyebrow drawn down, and the nostrils contracted, 
and the forehead wrinkled, duobus digitalis concrepabat, 
inciting his scholars by this sign to listen to him." So 
persons, who said any thing in the ear, that they might 
indicate it to be worthy of being attended to in silence, 
digitis concrepabant. Teste eodem Hieronymo. 

Ver. 13. vitio prafgere theta. 

Si quis accepto breviculo (libcllo) in quo nomina militum 
continent ur, hitatur in spice re quant i ex tnilitibus supers int, 
quant! in bello ccciderint, et requirens qui inspicere missus 
est, propriam notam,verbi caussa utdici solet, ©ad unius- 
cujusque defunct i notnen adscribat, et propria rursus nota 
supers ti tern signet. Numquid videtur is qui not am ad de- 
functi nomen apponit, et propria rursus notnen nota super sti- 
tem signat, quod egerit aliquid, ut vel hie defuncti, vel tile 
caussam viventis acciperit. Rufinus. 

Casaubon is surely mistaken when he says, cum recen- 
sebant latcrculos militum, nominibus eorum qui perierant, 
prafigebant ; hoc erat expungere. The letter theta, 
the first of the word <dot,va\oq, death, was prefixed to the 
names of those who were capitally condemned ; and was 
afterwards put in the muster rolls of the army, before 
the names of those who had died. It therefore simply 
indicated that the person, to whose name it was prefixed, 



148 NOTES TO SATIRE IV. 

was dead ; and thus served to inform the general of an 
army, what individuals, and what number of them, had 
perished. 

Ver. 16. Anticyras melior, &c. 

The Anticyrze were two islands in the iEgean sea, 
famous for the production of hellebore. See notes to 
Sat. 1. 

Ver. 18. curata cuticula sole. 

Era uso de' Jascivi untarsi prima d'odorosi unguenti, e 
pot esporst ai vaggi del sole per far mediante quel colore, 
che imbevuta la pelle conservasse plu lungamente quella 
fragranza. Rovigo. 

Ver. 20. Dinomaches ego sum.' 



Alcibiades was the son of Dinomache. See Plutarch. 
The reading from ver. 19 should be as follows : 

A. Expect a ; S. baud aliud respondeat hac anus. A. 

1 nunc, 
Dinomaches ego sum. S. Suffla. A. Sum candidus. 
S. Esto, £sV. 

Ver. 22. — ocima 



Casaubon reads ocima in preference to ocyma ; between 
which there is a difference in sense as well as in ortho- 
graphy. The first is that species of plant, to which we 
give the name of Basil, and which, is better known in 
the south of Europe than with us. The second was an 



NOTES TO SATIRE IV. 149 

herb, which, as Varro informs us, the ancients gave to 
cattle for a purge. The ochnum has an exceedingly 
strong perfume. It is remarkable, that Ruellius un- 
derstands these words in direct opposition to Casaubon. 

Ver. 24. Sed precedent i, &c. 

Peras imposuit Jupiter nohis duas : 

Propriis repletam vitiis post tergum dedit, 
Alienis ante pectus suspendit gravem 

Hac re vt'dere nostra mala non possumus 
Alii simul delinquunt, censores sumus. Phjed. 

Ver. 26. quantum non milvus aberret. 

Die, passer, cui tot mantes, tot pradia servas, 
Appula, tot miivos intra tua pascua lassos. JUV. 

Ver. 28. ad compita, tffc. 

Compita — ubimultee via: competunt in unum. The compi- 
tum seems to have been what the French call a carrefour. 

The compitaliawere feasts instituted in honour of the 
Lares. They were celebrated only by slaves and pea- 
sants. (Plin. xxxvi. c. 26. and Dionysius Halicarnassus, 
L. ix.) The Saturnalia were held in the month of De- 
cember. To this Juvenal alludes when he says, 
Vinum toto nescire Decembri. 

But the compitalia were held in the beginning of Ja- 
nuary. Thus Cicero : Ego quoniam quarto nonas Ja- 
nuarii Compitalitius dies est, &c. 



I50 NOTES TO SATIRE IV. 

It appears, that the rustic crew, having assembled to 
celebrate the Compitalia, hung up the yokes of oxen in 
little open temples, erected for the purpose at the cross- 
ways : Ubi adiculce consecrantur patentes, in his juga 
fracta ab agricolis ponuntur emeriti et laborati operis in- 
dicium. Interp. Pers. 

Ver. 30. tunicatum cum sale mordens 

Cape, et farratam puer'is plaudentibus ollam, 
P anno s am f esc em morientis sorbet aceti P 
Dryden translates this, — 

To a short meal he males a tedious grace , 
Before the barley pudding comes in place : 
Then, bids fall on ; himself, for saving charges, 
A peeled sliced onion eats, and tipples verjuice. 

Ver. 33. At si unctus cesses, &c. 

In the remainder of this Satire I profess to have imi- 
tated, and not to have translated my Author ; and the 
thirty verses between the hooks are perhaps rather found- 
ed upon Persius, than imitated from him. I observe the 
Reviewers, in noticing the first edition of my work, say 
nothing of the bold intrusion of these thirty lines. May 
I be allowed here to make a very few remarks to the 
conductors of the British Critic, and of the Monthly 
Review ? 

The author of the British Critic, with undoubtedly a 
good-natured intention upon his part, commences his 



NOTES TO 'SATIRE IV. 151 

critique upon my work, by defending me from the im- 
putation of want of modesty in publishing it. He sup- 
poses, that I was unacquainted with Brewster's trans- 
lation of Persius, because I have not mentioned it in my 
Preface ; and thence he absolves me from the charge of 
presumption, in attempting what had been already done, 
in his opinion, with unparalleled success. I must hope 
to be forgiven by the author of the British Critic, if, in 
acknowledging his erudition, his various literature, the 
general ability of his criticisms, and the soundness of his 
principles, both moral and political, I do not always 
coincide with him in his notions of poetical excellence. 
Brewster's translation of Persius was not unknown to 
me, when I began mine. If I deserve to be charged 
with presumption, I at least do not desire to evade a 
merited censure, by a false plea of ignorance. The truth 
is, that I judged very differently of Brewster from the 
author of the British Critic. I did not find out, that he 
united all the talents Avhich can be required in a trans- 
lator. I did not discover, that his numbers were re- 
markable either for their strength, or for their harmony. 
On the contrary, I fairly own, I thought them, as I 
think them still, feeble and prosaic. I no where see in 
his verses those flashes of genius, which, amidst all the 
defects of Dryden's translation, occasionally shine through 
the gloom, and discover the poet. 

The author of the British Critic will probably abide 
by his opinion, as I, not less probably, shall abide by 



I52 NOTES TO SATIRE IV. 

mine. If he shall think, that I now doubly deserve to 
be blamed for want of modesty, he will perhaps regret 
having said many things of me, with which, if I were 
not flattered, I should have little modesty indeed. 

The Monthly Reviewers find my versification strong, 
flowing, and harmonious; but they question, whether 
it possess that ease and vivacity, in which Dryden, in 
their judgment, particularly excels. What English poet 
can exist, without admiring Dryden ? Dryden is to our 
poets, what Michael Angelo is to the painters of Italy. 
Would we wish to see the effects in poetry of the to 
<r(po$oov xat ivQx<ria,fixov 7ra3"o?,* which Longinus con- 
siders as one of the sources of the sublime, let us study 
the works of Dryden. If his verses be not always po- 
lished ; if his poems be defective in design, if his figures 
be generally too coarse ; there is a vivida vis animi, 
which pervades his works', which gives to them the 
immortal stamp, the indelible character of genius. Per- 
haps above all other English Poets, Dryden possesses that 
constant glow of poetical enthusiasm, which more than 
metre or rhyme distinguishes poetry from prose. But 
with submission to the acuteness and learning of the 
Monthly Reviewers, I have never thought that in satire, 
especially, ease and vivacity were peculiarly characte- 
ristic of the Muse of Dryden. Sometimes we are struck 

* See in the Thesaurus of Stephanus how the word TraOo? 
was understood apnd rhetores. 



NOTES TO SATIRE IV. I53 

with the beauty of her form, with the dignity of her 
appearance, with the majesty of her aspect, rather con- 
trasted, than concealed, by the negligence of her apparel. 
Sometimes we see her fallen from her high estate, pressed 
within the iron gripe of poverty, her dress slovenly,, her 
zone unbound, and her bays untrimmed. In these less 
happy hours, can we be made merry by her unnatural 
mirth ? can we smile, while the Muse of Dryden, formed 
to strike with no unequal hand the lyre of Pindar, conde- 
scends to employ the coarse language of vulgar liberti- 
nism ; and strives to entertain us with ribaldry gathered 
from the stews, and with jests worthy of the alehouse ? 



i 5 4 



NOTES TO SATIRE V, 



SATIRE V. 

Ver. i. Vatihus hie mos est centum sibi poscere voces, 
Centum ora, et lingua; optare in carmina centum. 
Persius probably particularly alludes here to the ex- 
travagant hyperbole employed by Virgil, where he says, 
Non mihi si centum lingua: sint, oraque centum. 

Ver. g. -sape instils o ccenanda Glyconi. 

Glyco, tragcedi alicujus nomen vocis obsonce, quern obiter 
satiricus irridet. Casaubon. 

Ver. 25. — et picta hctoria lingua:. 

The old copies have plectoria. Casaubon, no more 
than any body else, could tell what plectoria meant. He 
therefore reads tectoria. 

Ver. 31. Bullaque succinct is Laribus, &c. 

The bulla was a small ornament, or rather amulet, 
hung about the neck. It seems to have been used even 
in the remotest times, and by different nations. The 
Egyptians, according to Diodorus Skulus, wore round 
their necks images suspended to collars. The supreme 



NOTES TO SATIRE V. I55. 

judge was adorned with a golden chain, to which was 
attached an image of precious stones, which was the 
figure of truth. E<popn £\ xp%i$ixxms tte{h tov -rpxyjiXov 
sx ypii(ryif xXwiut; y\prr^ivov cwJtoi/ ruu 7toXvtsXo)v AtOwi/ 
7rpo<7r]yop£uoi/ xXr^uxv. iElian nearly concurs with Dio- 
dorus, only he makes the image to consist of a single 
sapphire. E'Y^ ^ K<Xi My<xAux 7repi tov x\yjvx iv. QonrQxpx 
Ai9s, $t txxXlflo otyxX^x xX-rfyax. If we can believe Pig- 
norius, the Egyptian soldiers wore beetles, sculptured in 
gems or stones, and tied round their necks or arms. Ac- 
cording to ./Elian the soldiers wore rings with the figure 
of the beetle sculptured on it. Aiyxmliuv ol ^.xyj^oi 
E7n twi/ JtxxTvXtu]/ uyou lyyiyXv^ivov xxvQxpov. The 
ring here (AccxtiXiov) probably is put for the gem, which 
was set in it. Thus also Plutarch de hide et Osir, rots 
fAOi^fAoig xxvQxpog' th yXvtpn vtppxy^oq. 

The Jews, besides the urim and thummim, which for- 
med part of the sacerdotal ornaments ; and the teffilas, 
which were tied on the head, and the hand : wore phy- 
lacteries upon their breasts, inscribed with the sacred 
name of mn>. It seems a little singular, that a living 
author, who is a man of research, should adduce the 
TiTpxypx^ocTov as a proof of the Jews having mystically 
adorned a triad. 

The bulla appears to have been an ornament worn by 
the Roman youth from very remote antiquity. Macro- 
bius mentions, that it was given by the elder Tarquin 



I56 NOTES TO SATIRE V, 

to his son, a boy of fourteen, who had killed a Sabine chief. 
Et pro condone laudavit, et bulla aurea donavit insignien s 
puerum ultra anno s for tern pr tenuis virilitatis et honoris. 

It appears from Macrobius, that in the early ages of 
the republic, this ornament was reserved for the children 
of those patrician magistrates, who had sat in the curule 
chair. Duntaxat Hit quorum patres curulem gesserunt 
magi stratum. It was, however, afterwards universally 
worn by the prcetextatl. 

The golden bulla was only worn by those, whose rank 
and wealth authorized it — bulla suspendi in collo infanti- 
bus ingenuis solet aurea. Those children who were poor 
wore leathern thongs, instead of the bulla, whence Ju- 
venal, 

Et ruscum puero si contigit aurum 

Vel nodus tantum, et signum depaupere loro. 
The ancient scholiast observes, Antiquitus nobilium pueri 
bullas aureus habebant , pauperum de loris signum liberiatis. 
But it is probable, that in the knots tied on these thongs, 
were supposed to exist those charms, which were capa- 
ble of repelling evil. Macrobius, speaking of the bulla, 
says, inclusis intra earn remediis, qua crederent adversus 
invidiam valentissima. These thongs might have been 
in imitation of those small whips, which the priests of 
Egypt emblematically used, to expel evil from their 
temples and habitations. According to Bellorius, the 
Syrian goddess, fagellum in manu pro sceptro gerit. The 
gods, averters of evil, Averrunci nuncupati, were also 



NOTES TO SATIRE V. I57 

supposed to be armed with these whips, which had 
three leathern thongs with knots at the end of each. 
The Oriental scholar, will have anticipated me in re- 
marking, that the youth of the cast of the Bramins wear 
thongs of the antelope's skin round their necks, which 
they lay aside at fourteen years of age. With respect 
to the shape of the bulla, there appears some difference 
of opinion among Antiquarians. In the figures of the 
Egyptian godHarpocrates, which I have seen, viz. one 
in Cuper. de Harpocrat. ; and another, No. 77 of the 
Abbe Winckelmann's ancient Monuments ; the bulla is 
round. But Macrobius informs us, that among the 
Romans it was made in the shape of a heart. Macrob. 
in Somn. L. i. C. 6. But Plutarch, on the other hand, 
speaking of the bulla, says, to yap (ponvo^ivov a-yjipa. Trig 
c-fAni/y,?, orxv r) ^yji^vog a <r<patposi<j£?, &c. I have no 
doubt myself, but that this ornament was originally 
worn by those nations, which had fallen into the Sabean 
superstition. The round bulla among the Egyptians was 
worn in honour of the sun, as seems to be indicated by 
its being found of that form on the figures of Harpo- 
crates. When it was in the shape of a crescent, it was 
consecrated to I sis. As it is very possible that the Ro- 
mans might not have known whence they derived the 
superstition of wearing the bulla, they perhaps were 
not very accurate in giving it its proper figure, and thus 
Macrobius might have been led to suppose, that its 
shape resembled that of a heart. 



I58 NOTES TO SATIRE V. 

Succitictis Laribus, &c. succinctis aiitem (says Casau- 
bon), id est, tv^covoi;, quia habitu perigrinantium erant 
Lares pellibus amicti, cum cane comite. We may say of 
this obscure note, what Johnson said of one of Warbur- 
ton's on Shakespeare, it puts the commentator almost on 
a level with the poet. Was it then in honour of the 
Lares viales, and not of the Lares familiares, that the 
bulla was hung up ? If to the latter, as seems indu- 
bitable, Casaubon will not be found to have solved the 
difficulty. 

Ver. 32. totaque impune Suburrd. 

The Suburra of ancient Rome did not correspond, 
as some have thought, with the Subura of the modern 
city. Donatus is mistaken, when he supposes it to have 
extended towards the Quirinal hill and the porta Virni- 
nalis. Panvinius thinks it extended between the Palatine 
mount, and mount Ccelius. But I rather am inclined 
to follow Nardinus, who says, tota igitur ilia planities 
inter Cozlium et Exquilinum a SS. Petri et Marcellini 
ade usque ad amphitheatrum Titi, Subura appellata fuit, 
fc?V. 

Nardinus informs us, that in the Suburra were the 
lupanaria. This, he says, may be proved not only 
upon the authority of Rufus and Victor, but by six 
hundred testimonies besides from the ancient poets. I 
am not so well read in the ancient poets, as to be able 
to cite them quite so often upon this subject : but if the 



NOTES TO SATIRE V. I59 

reader think it worth his while to have a poetical au- 
thority, he may turn to Martial, who will furnish him 
with several. We are, however, obliged to Nardinus 
for his information, as we can no longer be at a loss to 
guess what attracted Persius, and possibly the blandi co- 
mltcs to the Suburra. 

Ver. 33. Permisit sparisse ocuhs jam candidus umbo. 

The most ancient scholiasts upon Persius, thought 
that umbo in this passage was put c-ui^Jo^ww? for toga. 
Casaubon has adopted this opinion, and if he had exe- 
cuted his intention of writing de re vestiaria, would no 
doubt have treated this subject with his usual erudition. 
I have, however, preferred giving umbo its more com- 
mon signification of a shield, in which I have followed 
the example of Dryden and Holyday. 

It does not clearly appear, what part of the toga was 
understood by the umbo. Tertullian (de Pallio) men- 
tions it. Ferrarius de re vestiaria shows it to be not 
different from the sinus : but I am led to suspect, that 
both he and Rubenius build too much upon conjecture, 
in their opinions upon this and other parts of the Ro- 
man dress. Ferrarius contends, in spite of the autho- 
rity of Tertullian, that the sinus and the u?nbo, at least 
in togis communibuSy were the same. Rubenius con- 
troverts this opinion ; and Ferrarius replies to his ob- 
jections in his Analecta. Rubenius says, after stating 
what he conceives to be the opinion of Lipsius, assen- 



l6o NOTES TO SATIRE V. 

tior, et existimo, umbonem dictum fidsse partem Mam toga, 
qu<z circa humerum sinistrum, in varias rugas contracta 
descendebat in pectus, et imponebatur halleo Mi, qui sub 
hutnero dextro ad sinistrum ducebatur, atque ita umbonem 
cingebat. 

Ferrarius replies, that Lipsius does not authorize this 
opinion. The words of Lipsius, to which Rubenius 
alludes, are — Latinos, vestis positum, qui ad pectus ex- 
ibat in tumorem, umbonem vocasse. These words, Fer- 
rarius contends, imply, that the umbo was composed 
ex sinu superiore et inferiore* 

Upon reconsidering this dispute, which probably to 
some of my readers will not appear very interesting, I 
am inclined to coincide in opinion with Rubenius : I 
think the words of Tertullian decide it in his favour. 
Dehinc diluculo tunica prius cingulo correpta (quam pra- 
stabat moderatiorem. texuisse) recognito rursus umbone, et 
si quid exorbitavit reformato, partem quidem de Icevo pro- 
mitt at ; ambitum vero ejus ex quo sinus nascitur, jam de- 
ficientibus tabulis retrahat a scapulis. 

Ver. 40. • sub pollice vultum. 

In order to illustrate these words, which none of the 
commentators seem rightly to have understood, I shall 
transcribe a passage from the celebrated Winckelmann's 
History of the Arts. 

" Je commencepar l'argile, comme lapremiere matiere 
employee par l'Art, et surtout par les modeles en terre 



NOTES TO SATIRE V. l6l 

cuite, et en platre. Les artistes anciens, ainsi que font 
les notres travailloient ess modeles avec l'ebauchoir, 
comrae on le voit a la figure du Statuaire Alcamene sur 
un petit bas-relief de la Villa Albani. Mais ils se ser- 
voient aussi des doigts, et particulierement des ongles, 
pour rendre de certaines parties delicates, et pour im- 
primer plus de sentiment a l'ouvrage. C'est de ces 
touches fines que parle Polyclete, lorsqu'il dit que la 
plus grande difficulte dans l'execution ne se manifeste 
que quand 'a terre se niche sous les ongles. "Ot^i/ hg 
owyx o 7tiXo?, tx.psx.nai. Du reste, ce passage n'a pas 
ete entendu par les savans, ct quand Francois Junius 
le traduit par, cum ad unguem exigitur lutum, il ne re- 
pand pas plus de jour sur la sentence du Statuaire Grec. 
Le mot ow^i^av, i^vvyj^w; paroit designer les der- 
nieres touches que sculpteur donne a son modele. Ce 
modele des artistes s'appelloit x/wajSeff. C'est a ces 
derniers coups d'ongles donnes au modele, que se rap- 
porte l'expression d'Horace ad unguem fact us homo, et 
ce que le meme Poete dit dans un autre endroit, per- 
fect urn decles non castigavit ad unguem. II me semble 
que ni ces deux passages Latins, ni l'expression Grecque, 
n'ont jamais ete entendus. On voit qu'on peut appli- 
quer ces facons de parler a la derniere main donnee 
aux modeles avec les ongles des doigts. Les anciens 
nomment pareillement le p >uce, lorsqu'il est question 
de la manoeuvre des figures de cire. 

Exigite ut mores teneros ceu pollice ducat 
Est si quis cera vultumfacit. Juv. 

M 



l62 NOTES TO SATIRE V. 

Ver. 55. et pallentis gratia cimiini. 

Cuminum. This plant grows to the height of eight or 
nine feet in hot countries. In our hot-beds it seldom 
exceeds three or four. It is planted in considerable 
quantities in the island of Malta, and the seed is sold for 
propagation to the inhabitants of other countries. The 
ancients put this spice into their wine ; and those, who 
drank it thus mixed, were remarkable for their paleness. 
Pliny observes, Omne cutninumpallorem bibentibus gignit, 
&c. 

Wine sometimes produces this effect bibentibus with- 
out the aid of Cumin spice. 

Ver. 57. hunc aha decoquit : ille 

In Venerem put ret. 
Dryden translates this, 

" One bribes for high preferment in the state, 
A second shakes the box, and sits up late : 
Another shakes the bed, dissolving there, 
Till knots," &c. 
Risum teneatis? 
Next let us hear the gentle Brewster. 

" This Spark the frail comsuming die devours ; 
While that dissolves away in loose amours." 
Is it the Spark who devours the die, or the die which 
devours the Spark ? If the former, I wish the young 
gentleman a good digestion. But if it be the die, which 
devours the young gentleman, as I suppose it is, I have 
yet to learn, what, in the name of nonsense, is meant 



NOTES TO SATIRE V. 163 

by a frail consuming die. As for the paralytic line 
which follows, it is so miserably feeble, as really to 
claim compassion. A ballad writer would be ashamed 
of the rhyme. 

Ver. 60. Tunc crassos transisse dies, lucemque pajus- 
trem. 

I do not understand lucemque palustrem, as it is ge- 
nerally translated gloomy light. I rather think, that Per- 
sius alludes here to the luminous vapours, which are 
seen during the night to exhale from fens and bogs, and 
which are said to mislead the unwary traveller. The 
sense of this verse then, and of the subsequent, will be : 
" Then they lament, that they have journeyed through 
life in darkness and error, with no other light than the 

treacherous ray of the nocturnal vapour then, when 

too late, they regret their past life so much, as even to 
mourn, that there is any more of life to spend." 

Ver. 71. ■ canthwn 

This is the word to which I allude in my Preface. 
It is not pure Latin, but of Spanish or African origin. 
There is indeed the Greek word xxv^oq, which signifies 
the corner of the eye ; but from which we cannot derive 
canthus, as Quintilian pronounces it barbarous. 

Ver. 79. Marcus Datna, &c. 

The ceremony of making a slave free was very short. 



164 NOTES TO SATIRE V. 

The p <rator turned him round, laid his wand on his head, 
and said, hunc esse liberum volo. Forthwith the new 
man strutted out of the praetor's house with the cap of 
liberty on his head ; and giving himself a pranomen y was 
saluted by this new appellation as he passed through the 
streets. It is for this reason, that Persius repeats so 
often the name of Marcus. But these were not all the 
advantages which accrued to the novus homo — His name 
was enrolled in one of the tribes ; and upon his pro- 
ducing a ticket, which had been given to him on his 
manumission, he was entitled to his share in all public 
distributions of meat and corn, &c. 

Ver. 82. Hac mera libertas ! hoc nobis pilea donantl 
I have rather imitated, than translated Persius in this 
passage : 

O sacred Liberty ! O name profaned ! 

Are thus thine honours, thus thy rights obtain'd ? 

No, 'tis not wealth which lifts the soul to thee, 

Nor yet thy cap, which makes its wearer free ! 

Brewster has rendered this verse in his usual style : 
" A sample here of perfect freedom see ; 
Thanks to our caps, they make us charming free." 
If such versification as this can get a man reputation, 
I must say that Fame played Sir Richard Blackmore 
a sorry trick, when she sounded his name through the 
postern. 



NOTES TO SATIRE V. 165 

Ver. 86. Stoicus hie, aurem mordaci lotus actio. 

The expression of Persius is entirely figurative ; and 
if translated literally into another language (where the 
metaphor is not employed) would be unintelligible. 
Ausonius says, . 

Scillite decies si cor purgeris actio. 

I do not understand Persius, as most of his commen- 
tators do. I think, he means the Stoic's acuteness of 
intellect, and not the severity of his morals. The sense 
is " here you infer falsely, says the Stoic, whose under- 
standing has been rendered acute, and quick in the per- 
ception of truth, by the severe application and constant 
exercise which he had given his mind." 

Ver. 87. Hoc reliquum accipio ; licet Mud, et ut volo, 
tolle. 

The sense is, — " I admit, that all who have the power 
to live as they please, are free ; but I deny that you have 
that power, and I still deny that you are free." 

Ver. 88. Vindicta, &£. 

Cicero says, si neque censu, neque vindicta, nee testa- 
ment 0, liber f actus est, non est liber. 

Ver. 90. ■ si quid Masuri rubrica notavit. 

Masurius was a lawyer, who made a digest of the 
Roman laws about the time of Tiberius. 

Dryden is not inaccurate, when he says, that the text 



l66 NOTES TO SATIRE V. 

of the Roman laws was written in red letters, which 
was called the rubric. There is, however, a distinction, 
which ought to be made. The criminal and civil codes 
(which include the twelve tables) were written in red ; 
but those rules, which were established in the courts by 
the praetors, were not. — Ecce hie album pro jure pratoris 
dixit, rubricas pro jure civili, 13c. Ex Turnebo. Vide 
Juv. Sat. xiv. 

Ver. 95. Sambucam, &c. 

The sambuca was a musical and stringed instrument 
of a triangular form. This was a Syriac word adopted 
by the Greeks and Romans. 

Ver. 103. Luciferi rudis. i.e. ignorant of astronomy. 

Ver. 134. saperdas advehe Ponto. 

Saperda was the name of a fish. Ainsworth under 
this word says, " a sorry fish, coming from Pontus." I 
conceive there are two mistakes here. First, there is no 
authority for calling it a sorry fish. We learn, indeed, 
from Athanasus, that it was the same with the coracinus, 
which was a fish of the Nile ; and Martial says 
Princeps Niliacis raperis coracine macellis. 

But, if it had been a sorry fish, it would not have 
been an object of traffic. Secondly, Pliny (L. xxxii.) 
says, that this fish was peculiar to the Nile. It there- 
fore did not come from Pontus. Persius says, saperdas 



NOTES TO SATIRE V. 167 

advehe Ponto : i. e. carry the fish called soperda to the 
coasts of the Pontus. 

Vtr. 138. Varo, &c. 

This word does not signify servus militum here, as it 
sometimes does, and as the old scholiast has understood 
it. Varo or Baro was a term of contempt. It was par- 
ticularly given to those, who without either sense or 
knowledge pretended to philosophize. Suidas even says 
that Baro was the name of a female philosopher ; and 
some have maliciously insinuated, that it was thence 
given, per contemptum, to all shallow thinkers. 

J'er. 169. soleOy puer, objurgabere rubra. 

I could have almost wished, that Persius had stood 
more in need of a commentary between this note and 
the last. If I have any female readers, they will think 
it quite ungallant, that two notes should follow each 
other, from which they must see how the sex has been 
libelled from the remotest antiquity. Not only have fe- 
male philosophers been held in contempt, but the meek 
and mild government of wives and mistresses has been 
aspersed and libelled. Malice has transmitted it to pos- 
terity, that there was a Greek comedy in which Hercules 
was represented as spinning, while Omphale sat beside 
him, and beat him with her slipper as often as the thread 
broke. Terence alludes to this in the Eunuch ; and 
Thraso in the Roman comedy seems to have been very 



l68 NOTES TO SATIRE V. 

willing to play the same part which Hercules had done 
in the Greek. This is without doubt a scandalous piece 
of satire upon female authority. But Juvenal, who is 
guilty of the most shameful slanders, with respect to the 
ladies, gives us to understand, that wives as well as mis- 
tresses, could sometimes employ the correcting slipper. 
I hope a learned friend of mine will be able to say some- 
thing in his author's defence upon this subject, when he 
comes to publish his admirable version of Juvenal. But 
I find, that St. Chrysostom (whom we must not suppose 
to have spoken from experience) also affirms, that the 
tyranny of the women was intolerable. They beat and 
buffet, and spit upon their lovers, says the good Father, 
and that for nothing at all. As for Persius, he is evi- 
dently copying Terence, and whereas the comic writer 
employs the verb commit igari, to knock, or strike ; the 
satirist employs a gentler word, which signifies to chide. 

Ver. 178. ■ nostra ut Floralia possint. 

The most minute and compendious account of the 
Floralia, which I happen to know, is the following : 
Floralia, a Flora, sumpsere nomen, cui ut arbores affatim 
efflorescerent, ad justamque magnitudinem fructus accede- 
rent, quarto calendas Maii, oraculo moniti sacra consti- 
tuerunt, namque htzc tempora frugibus metuenda sunt in 
cujus festis diebus fceminas, quce vulgato corpore quastum 
faciunt, denudari, et pudendis obscenisque invelatis per 
luxum et lasciviam currere, et impudicos jocos agere ser- 



NOTES TO SATIRE V. 169 

vatum est, quibus etiam Mdiles cicer, fabas, et missilla 
plebi spargere, assueverant, leporesque, et capreas, aliaque 
mit'ta animalia ludis admittere, quos in vico Patricio aut 
proximo, cclebrabant, noctuque accensis facibus, cum mult a 
obscenitate verborum per urbem vadere, et adtub<z s r nitum 
convenire. Fuit enim Flora nobile scortum, hujus auctor 
argument}, ques cum prtcpotcns csset, et divitiis afflueret, 
populum Romanum morte obita hccredcni fecit, pecuniamque 
annuam ludis exhiberi voluit. 

Ver. 179. > At cum 

Herodis venere dies, unctdque fenestra 
Disposita pinguem ntbulam vomuere lucerna 
Portantes villas ; rubrumquc amplexa catinum 
Cauda natat tbynni ; turnct alba fidelia vino : 
Labra moves tacitus, recutitaque sabbata palles. 
I have thought myself obliged to alter this passage 
from the original. Persius, in throwing contempt up- 
on the Jews, has expressed himself with as much ob- 
scurity, as when he censured the crimes, or laughed 
at the follies, of Nero. 

Upon the first consideration of the above verses it 
does not appear, why the superstitious man waits for 
the celebration of Herod's birthday, before he fasts at 
the sabbaths of the Jews. I can only conjecture, that 
that was the season when strangers were generally ad- 
mitted at Rome within the pale of the temple. The 
Herodians, who probably alone of all the Jews observed 



I70 NOTES TO SATIRE V. 

this festival of Herod, were numerous at Rome. They 
had disobliged their countrymen by the support which 
they gave to Herod the Great, and by acceding to the 
payment of a tribute to Augustus. 

It seems extraordinary that Persius should sneer at 
the Jews for lighting lamps at their festivals, as a simi- 
lar practice was common to the Romans. The Jews, 
however, had certainly given offence at Rome upon that 
subject. Accendere aliquem, says Seneca in one of his 
epistles, lucemas Sabbatis prohibeamus : quoniam, adds 
he contemptuously, nee lumine Dii egent, et ne homines 
quidem delectaniur fuligine. 

Nothing, however, was more common at Rome, than 
the lighting of lamps at festivals. Even upon occasions 
of domestic rejoicing, the doors of the house were hung 
with laurels, and illuminated with lamps. Juvenal in a 
beautiful satire thus expresses himself, 

— : Longos erexlt janua ramos, 

Et matutinis operatur festa lucernis. 

It appears from Tertullian, that the Christians soon 
adopted this practice. He thus charges the alienated 
disciples of the faith. Sed luceant, inqutt (nempe Chris- 
tusj, opera vestra. At nunc lucent tabernce et janua: nos- 
tra: : plures jam invenies Ethnicorum fores sine lucernis 
et laurels quam Christianorum. 

The Jews probably took their custom of burning 
lamps at their feasts from the Egyptians. Herodotus 
L. n. tells us, there was an annual sacrifice at Sais 



NOTES TO SATIRE V. I71 

known by the name of the feast of lamps. The Chi- 
nese have a similar festival at the present day. 

We must not understand Persius in this place to speak 
of the feast of lamps among the Jews. That festival was 
instituted by Judas, and was held annually on the twen- 
ty-fifth of the month Cishleu. See Josephus, and Picart 
des Ceremonies des Juirs. 

Persius, as well as Suetonius, is mistaken in suppos- 
ing that the Jews fasted on their sabbaths. The verb 
roto, signifies quievit ; the substantive derived from it 
(and which is the same in sound) signifies quies. The 
Jews on their sabbath abstained from labour, but they 
did not observe it as a fast : on the contrary, it appears 
that the rotvn my sabbath eve was generally employed 
in preparing the feast of the succeeding day. They then 
lighted lamps, which burned dining the day-time, which 
practice they still continue. Picart says he has seen 
" leur appartement tres artistement illumine, tandis 
que les rayons du soleil encore doroit le toit de la 
maison." 

Through the whole of this passage, it is evident, 
Persius means to expose the meanness and poverty of the 
Jews. The rubrum catinum y the albafidelia, the cauda 
tbynni, all mark the wretchedness of the feast, at which 
the superstitious man assists. 

Persius alludes in the words, labra moves tacltus, to 
the Jews repeating inwardly certain words and prayers. 
Thus they never pronounce the name rtttV Jehovah but 
upon occasions of extraordinary solemnity ; and when 



172 NOTES TO SATIRE V. 

at the commencement of the festival of Cheipur, the 
priest prays aloud from the hechal, the people repeat after 
him in a low voice that is scarcely audible. 

The real meaning of the word recutita has been 
rightly guessed at by Stelluti and Holyday. A more 
modern translator has strangely rendered it curtailed — 
" Strictly observant of the curtaiYd race, 
Poor thou, with anguish brooding on thy face," 

Brewster. 

But by what miracle did this translator account for 
the continuation of the curtailed race ? I believe this 
question would have puzzled the whole Sanhedrim, if 
God, instead of ordering the males of his chosen people 
to be circumcised, had ordered them to be curtailed. 

The severity which Persius displays in this passage, 
arose from a prejudice (if it was one) general among 
the Romans. The obstinacy, the treachery, and the in- 
tolerance of the Jews disgusted their conquerors. The 
usual lenity of the Caesars towards the inhabitants of 
the provinces annexed to their empire, was necessarily 
violated towards the children of Israel ; and in endea- 
vouring to subdue their untractable spirit, Rome was 
provoked to acts of cruelty and oppression unexampled 
in her annals. 

The rigid observance of their laws, as well as of the 
most minute ceremonies, rendered the Jews objects of 
derision to other nations, who considered them as the 
most ignorant and superstitious of mankind. But as the 
Roman arms gradually broke down the fence which 



NOTES TO SATIRE V. I73 

separated them from the rest of the world, their ancient 
institutions could not prevent the inundation of new 
opinions. Various sects suddenly sprang up, who dis- 
puted with all the subtlety of dialecticians. Philoso- 
phical questions, never before heard of within the walls 
of the synagogue, startled Superstition in her dotage. 
The children of the house of Aaron beheld with indig- 
nation the progress of Gentile doctrines, and denounced 
angry curses against those who neglected the laws of 
Israel, to teach the philosophy of Greece, n»JlV noun m 
Tobw m« nn« — Cursed be the man instructing his son 
in the wisdom of the Greeks. 

In the age of Pcrsius the Jews were become better 
known to the Romans ; but their new masters treated 
them only with contempt. The satirist, without doubt, 
thought the worst opprobrium he could throw upon the 
votary of superstition, was to represent him observing 
the rites and ceremonies of the Jews and Syrians. Little 
did he know, that in that same country of Judea, where 
he believed misanthropy reigned with error, bigotry, 
and ignorance, a system was already taught, whose mo- 
rality was simpler and sublimer than his own ; and 
whose pure, benevolent, and exalted principles, far 
eclipsed all the splendid precepts admired in the school 
of Zeno. 

Ver. 185. Tunc nigri Jemures, ov que perl cula rupto : 
Hlnc grandes Galli } et cum sistro lusca sacerdos, 



174 NOTES TO SATIRE V. 

Incussere Deos infantes corpora, si non 
Prcedictum ter mane caput gustaveris alii. 
The reader will probably smile at the translation 
Dryden has given of this passage. — 

" Then a crack 'd eggshell thy sick fancy frights, 
Besides the childish fear of walking sprites, 
Of o'ergrown gelding priests thou art afraid ; 
The timbrel, and the squintifego maid 
Of Isis awe thee :" &c. 

These priests were indeed what Dryden calls them. 
Herodian informs us how they received the appellation 
of Galli, — TT&Xoa jw.ru/ <p(>vyz<; ogyix^ov lirilu 7ro\a,fxw TaAAw 
vrdpfagsopli) from which, continues he, the ro^iat Ugopwoi 
received their surname : they were generally called at 
Rome by names more descriptive of their situation than 
Galli, such as, evirati, abscissi, semi-viri, &c. Lucian 
thus describes the ceremony of their inauguration. Ado- 
lescens quicunque ad hoc paratus venit, abjectis vestibus, 
magna voce in medium progreditur, at que ense distringit : 
accept o autem eo, continuo se ipsum sec at, curritque per 
urbem, et ea qua resecuit in manibus portat. in quam- 
cunque autem domum hac abjicit, ex ea, et vestemfamineam, 
et ornamentum muliebrem accipit. 

These eunuchs were the priests not of Isis, but of 
Cybele or Cybebe, the goddess of the Phrygians. I 
have preferred giving her the latter name, as being more 
expressive. KvGnQsw xv^iug ro iwi rw xstp&Xviv fiir\w' o§tv 



NOTES TO SATIRE V. 17$ 

x.oci rw (Arilifxx, tuv Qsoov aVo1« iv§ , B<rix<r(AO\) Kubrjbfli/ Asyacif* 
stflix yap ?i<(W»ao-|u.oii toi; n*ura»? yivslxi. 

The sistrum belonged equally to the Phrygian and 
Egyptian goddesses. Apuleius describes it as a brazen 
timbrel — cujus per angustam laminam in modum balthei 
Tecurvatam, trajectcs medics, parvce virgulce, crispante 
brachio, tergcminos ictus reddebant argutum sonum. 

Plutarch pretends, that the rods were expressive of 
the four elements, — why not the four cardinal points, 
or the four seasons ? This is an ill founded conjecture, 
Besides the sistrum had sometimes only three rods. 

Ver. 189. Dixeris hac inter varicosos centuriones, 
Continuo crassum ridet Vulfenius ingens, 
Et centum Grctcos curto cent us se licetur. 

I could have wished the absence of these three verses. 

It was not worthy of the attention of the poet to con- 
sider, how his philosophical opinions might be received 
inter varicosos centuriones. Any man, who should be 
rash enough to introduce an abstruse metaphysical ar- 
gument, while dining with the young ensigns at a mess- 
room, would probably not go unpunished for his want 
of knowledge of the world. But upon the other hand, 
it is at least equally unbecoming the character of a phi- 
losopher, to be solicitous about the reception which his 
opinions may meet from those, who from prejudice, 
ignorance, or imbecillity, are incapable of judging of 
them. 



176 NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 



SATIRE VI. 

Ver. 2. et tetrico vivunt tibi pectine chorda. 

Casaubon, perhaps rightly, observes, that the reading 
should be tetrico , and not Tetrico. For my part, I al- 
most suspect my author's gravity of a pun. 

Ver. 6. Mihi nunc Ligus ora 

Intepet. 

Casaubon, according to custom, when any difficulty 
occurs, makes all easy by supposing a rhetorical figure. 
Thus he says, Ligus ora xnr&KXccyri pro Ligustica, ut mox 
juvenesjocos, id est juveniles. I observe, Casaubon does 
not take notice of the construction of the last line of the 
fifth satire. I understand an infinitive. 

This great commentator has another peculiarity. He 
admires Persius to extravagance ; but he seems never to 
suspect him of poetry. It is true, the satirist did not 
shine in description ; yet, unless I had been told so by 
Casaubon, I should never have dreamt, that while my 
author is talking of the port cf Luna, and of the Ligu- 
rian shore, he is in fact all the time busy philosophizing. 
Who, that had not been bred to the profession of a 
commentator, would have discovered that Persius was 



NOTES TO SATIRE VI. I?? 

alluding here to the universal principle of heat, which, 
according to the Stoics, pervades every part of the uni- 
verse ? of this principle the vast body of the waters has 
its share. Now as the air begins to Cool when winter 
approaches, the transition from heat to cold would.be 
much more felt, if the earth and ocean did not part with 
a certain portion of caloric, as the air becomes less heated 
by the sun's rays. But water (as its fluidity evinces) 
contains a larger proportion of caloric than other mat- 
ter, of which the particles are united by a closer adhe- 
sion, and a more powerful attraction ; it necessarily 
follows then, that in the same latitudes the air of the 
sea will be warmer than that of continents. Now al- 
though this reasoning may appear to be borrowed from 
the modern chemists, yet it might certainly have been 
inferred from the principles of the Stoic philosophers, 
who held the universality of caloric just as much as 
Black or Lavoisier. Persius, therefore, under other 
terms, might have reasoned as I have now done : but 
still is it not a little absurd to suppose, that he could not 
describe his country residence, nor even talk of the 
weather, without taking all this trouble to prove that 
he was of the sect of Zeno, to his friend, who knew it 
very well before ? 

Ver. 9. Lunai portum, tifr. 

Strabo (L. v.) has celebrated the size and beauty of 
this port. It is still known by its ancient name ; and 
N ' 



178 NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 

is situated at the mouth of a small river called Vitra y 
which falls into the go If a de la Spetia. 

Ver. 11. Ghtintus pavone ex Pythagoreo. 

The Metempsychosis, like many other metaphysical 
doctrines, is laughed at by some who do understand it, 
and by more who do not. 

The transmigration of the soul was taught by the 
priests, and believed by the people of India, of Persia, of 
Chaldea, and of Egypt. This doctrine, which was first 
introduced into Greece by Pythagoras, was afterwards 
adopted and perhaps refined by the Platonists. Accord- 
ing to their sublime, but fanciful philosophy, God is the 
source of intellectual being ; and from him all other in- 
telligences are derived. As the rays of light, which illu- 
mine the earth, emanate from the orb of the sun, so the 
spirits, which animate matter, have originally proceeded 
from the essence of God. The soul, upon its first im- 
mersion into matter, loses all its energies, which it 
slowly and imperfectly recovers. If, in its union with 
matter, it becomes enamoured of its present existence, 
and forgets its intellectual pleasures, it continues wan- 
dering upon earth (according to the beautiful allegory of 
Apuleius) rising, or sinking, in the scale of being, as it 
is exalted by virtue, or degraded by vice. At length, 
when the soul of a virtuous man desires to be re-united 
with the primary intelligence, it becomes capable of 
attaining a higher sphere of existence. Finally, it returns 



NOTES TO SATIRE VI. I79 

to the source whence being flows; and in this union is 
the ultimate happiness. 

This doctrine is certainly sublime ; but does it not 
sometimes happen, that the sublime borders upon the 
extravagant ? 

Ver. 16. aut caenare sine uncto* 

Those authors are mistaken who say, that the Greeks 
took the custom of perfuming themselves at meals from 
the Persians ; and Pliny had forgotten his Homer, when 
he said that the Greeks did not use unguei.ts, until a 
period subsequent to the siege of Troy. Thus, speaking 
of Paris in the third book, the poet says, — 
KaAAet ts rj(3i«t/ v.ca £j|U.a<r». 

In another book he speaks of the wounds of Patroclus 
being filled with unguents. 

In later ages the custom of anointing the head, hands, 
and feet, became very general, not only at the com- 
mencement, but at the conclusion of feasts. Then, 

fi.ptX.lOi TTOAC, y\K^Z tyiptoV fAVpOV \ptV0V Tj'^U 

AAAos $ y u\i fstpocuss £7Tl$l%ia, ttccq-w louxev. 

The Ioniansare said to have been the first who wore 
crowns of flowers during their meals It became among 
the Romans a common fashion ; and the hair was first 
anointed, and then adorned with flowers. 

■ funde capacibus 

Vnguenta de conchis. j^uis udo 



l80 NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 

Deproperare apio coronas, 

Curatve myrto f 

But the perfumes most in request were those which 
came from Arabia, India, and Persia. 

Non omnes possunt olere unguenta exotica. 
It appears from Seneca, that one method of inviting a 
person of rank to supper, was to send him perfumes 
and garlands. (Seneca de Ira, L. ii.^J Perfumes, among 
the Romans, were made from myrrh, cinnamon, nard> 
spikenard, casia, roses, baccar, &c. 

Ver. 17. Et signum in vapida naso tetigisse lagena. 
This is to draw from the life. Horace himself could 
hardly have given a more striking picture of avarice. 

Ver. 18. Genitos horoscope, varo 

Products genio. 

. In the age of Persius the number of judicial astrolo- 
gers at Rome seems more than once to have excited the 
indignation of the poet, who justly reprobated a super- 
stition by which jugglers and sciolists imposed upon the 
credulity of the people. The senate had in vain decreed 
the expulsion of those cheats : they assumed the names 
of Chaldceiy Genethliaci, and Mathematici ; and obtained 
the highest credit among the lower orders of the Ro- 
mans, who were the dupes of their impostures. Every 
body knows the weakness of Dryden upon the subject of 
astrology. He has no note upon these words of Persius. 



NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 181 

Ver. 22. Utarego, utar. 

Perhaps the French language would admit here of a 
more literal translation than ours can do without offend- 
ing the idiom. J'userai moi, j'userai des biens que 
j'aye. An English translator, fearful of losing any of 
the graces of repetition, renders these words, 
I, I will use, will use my fortune too. 

Brewster. 

Ver. 27. trabe rupta, Bruttla saxa 

Prendlt amicus inops : &c. 

Dryden conjectures that these lines are Lucan's, be- 
cause they are more poetical than is common with the 
verses of Persius. Dryden's conjecture can hardly be 
admitted, I think, upon any one principle of critical 
justice. I remember six or eight very beautiful lines in 
Aurengzebe : shall we say, that they were not Dryden's, 
because they much surpass any others in that piece ? 
Dryden says further, that except this passage, and two 
lines at the conclusion of the second satire, our poet has 
written nothing elegantly. I have very amply criticised 
upon Persius in my Preface, and shall not therefore dis- 
cuss his poetical merits here. But before the reader de- 
termines upon the justice of Dryden's observation, I 
would wish him to examine the following passages in 
Persius. Satire I. from v. 115 to v. 119; Satire II. 
from v. 23 to v. 27; from v. 59 to v. 69 ; Satire III. 
from v. 35 to v. 43 ; from v. 65 to v. 72 ; Satire V. from 



l82 NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 

v. 30 to v. 51. I do not contend that every thing in 
these passages is elegant, but I think they entitle Persius 
to put in his claim for the laurel, not less than those 
which are cited by Dryden. 

Ver. 31. Nunc et de ce spite vivo 

Frange aliquid. 

Brewster has translated this, — 
" Sell, sell some land, and so support thy friend." 
1 he general fidelity of Brewster's translation I admit, 
however in other respects I may speak of it naso adunco. 
His having mistaken his author here, I can therefore 
very easily forgive to him, and the more readily, that 
all the commentators seem to have misunderstood this 
passage. 

Persius does not literally mean that the avaricious 
man should sell any part of his land to support his rela- 
tion, as has been generally supposed. The private sa- 
crifices to the Lares were made upon a turf, which 
probably (especially among the poor} supplied the place 
of a more costly altar. Thus Juvenal, 

^uafestus promts sa Deis animalia cespes 
Expectat, 
Horace says in one ode, 

Hie vivum mihi cespitem, hie 

Verbenas pueri, ponite thuraque 
Bini cum patera meri. 
He begins another, 



NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 1 83 

Martiis ccelebs quid again CaJendis 
^uidvelint flores, et ace err a thuris 
Plena, miraris, positusque carbo in 

Cespite vivo, 
Docte sermones utriusque lingua: ? 
Now as the sacrifices to the Lares were always in 
proportion to the daily consumption of provisions, and 
to the expenditure of the family ; the person who less- 
ened his household expences might be said, frangere ali- 
quid de vivo cespite. He contracted the size of his altars, 
and the quantity of the offerings made upon them, be- 
cause his mode of living, in other respects, was become 
less expensive. 

The meaning of Persius, therefore, is, contract your 
own expences^ and bestow some of your wealth on your 
indigent friend. 

Ver. 32. « ■ ne pictus oberret 

Car idea in tabula. 

Sailors escaped from shipwreck, were wont to carry 
about with them a picture descriptive of their misfor- 
tune. This was painted of a blue colour. See Casaubon. 

Ver. 39. maris expers. 

Much has been written about these two words. Per- 
haps enough, to have made it better, to have written no 
more. But as I differ from other commentators about their 
import, I shall concisely state how I understand them. 



184 NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 

According to some of the interpreters of Persius, 
these words signify void of manliness. Dryden seems 
to have understood them in this sense : 

" Now toys and trifles from their Athens come, 
And dates and pepper have unsinewed Rome." 

If I understand rightly the following couplet of 
Brewster, he seems to have preferred a more literal 
signification : 

" Pack'd up with dates and pepper, here they throng, 

And ship their damn'd philosophy along." 

This expression is evidently copied from the phrase 
of Horace : 

■ Chium maris expers. 

Now did Horace mean Chian wine void of strength, 
or Chian wine which had never crossed the seas ? I 
think, without doubt, the latter. The poet is ridi- 
culing the entertainment of Nasidienus. Now if we 
understand Chium expers maris to mean weak Chian 
wine, we entirely lose the point, which Horace meant 
to give. Nasidienus, if he had no better wine to present 
his guests than weak Chian, was perhaps more to be 
pitied than to be blamed ; but if he gave them bad Ita- 
lian wine, and impudently called it Chiari, his false- 
hood and his vanity were deservedly punished and ex- 
posed. 

Having thus fixed the sense of the phrase maris expers, 
as it was used by Horace, we shall have the less diffi- 
culty in ascertaining how it was employed by Persius, 



NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 185 

But it is necessary to the comprehension of this passage 
to observe here, that the poet speaks figuratively, and 
borrows his metaphor from the taste. The word sapere 
literally signifies to taste; and Persius continues his 
observations, as if he had really employed sapere in its 
literal signification. This will shew us that we are not 
to take the phrase pipere et palmis in its literal sense, any 
more than the word sapere. Now let us see how the 
sense of this difficult passage will be. Bestius, says the 
satirist, inveighs against the teachers of the Grecian 
philosophy. " So it is," cries he, U that since they have 
come among us, hoc nostrum sapere maris expers : this 
our taste, not versant in foreign flavours — (/. e. the 
plain natural sense of the Roman people) postquam urbi 
cum pipere ct palmis venit : afterwards came to the city 
with pepper and dates — (/. e. afterwards was corrupted 
by vicious innovations) — Fceniseca crasso vitiarunt un- 
guine pultas : the hay-cutters have vitiated their pud- 
dings with thick oil — {/'. e. and even the lowest orders 
of the people have become corrupt and luxurious.) 

Ver. 51. Kan adeo, inquis, 

Exossatus ager juxta est. 

Casaubon has rightly interpreted exossatus ager, " a 
piece of land cleared from rocks and stones ;" /. e. a 
cultivated field. But I differ from that commentator, 
when, by understanding urbem, he makes juxta equiva- 
lent to suburbanus. There is certainly no authority for 



l86 NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 

this ; and I am doubtful if it be not altogether contrary 
to the sense. All the commentators, indeed, seem to 
me, to have mistaken the meaning of this difficult pas- 
sage, from construing juxta as a preposition, and not as 
an adverb. I know very well, that when juxta is taken 
adverbially it generally signifies ceque, eodem modo, simi- 
liter. Thus Tacitus, spent ac metum juxta gravatus. But 
this rule is not without its exceptions. Suetonius has 
the following passage. Tantique in avum, et qui juxta 
erant, obsequii, ut non immerito sit dictum, nee servum 
meliorem ullum, nee deteriorem dominum fuisse. 

Now as, in the words of Persius, there is no accusa- 
tive expressed, I am there also inclined to understand 
juxta as an adverb. I think too, it helps to elucidate the 
sense ; but of that, the reader will presently judge. 

I agree with a commentator whose notes in general 
are puerile enough, that " the taking est from juxta, 
and transferring it to exossatus, is not the natural method 
of the syntax." I, however, differ entirely from him 
when he says that exossatus signifies exhausted. 

I likewise think that non adeo refers to what has been 
before said, and should by no means be construed with 
exossatus. I would therefore point the passage as fol- 
lows, — 

" Non adeo," i inquis;' 

" Exossatus ager juxta est." 

I shall now give my own interpretation. The selfish 
and avaricious heir is pressed by his relation, to say 



NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 187 

whether or not he objects to the manner in which this 
latter proposes to expend his fortune. AnprohibesP cries 
the rich man. Die dare. Non aeleo, inquis; not so truly, 
say you; but you add, exossatus ager juxta est ; a rich 
field is hard by. The relation immediately perceives 
that his heir by this insinuates, that though he does not 
openly object to his proposed plans of expenditure, yet 
he would recommend a wiser method of laying out his 
money. — viz. in the purchase of an estate, which though 
it might add nothing to his own pleasures, might benefit 
those who are to succeed to him. In consequence the 
rich man is offended, and exclaims, — 

Age si mihi nulla 

Jam reliqua ex amitis, &c. 
This explanation appears to myself to be satisfactory, 
and I hope it will be found so by others. The only ob- 
jection, I think, that can be urged against it, is with 
respect to the meaning and construction of adeo. But I 
find it used sometimes for certe, as the reader will see 
by looking into Stephanus ; and, employed in this way, 
it answers to the sense I give the passage. 

Ver. 79. Depinge ubi sistam 

Inventus, Chrysippe, tui finitor acervi. 

In the preceding satire it may have been observed, 
that I have rendered fruge Cleanthea literally Cleanthean 
corn. This may appear obscure, and it may be thought, 
that I might have said better, with Dryden, Stoic insti- 



l88 NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 

lutes, or even with Brewster, Stoic seed. But it appeared 
to me, that Persius probably had some reason for ex- 
pressing himself as he did, and I am confirmed in this 
opinion by the words above quoted. 

After Zeno, Cleanthes and Chrysippus were the most 
distinguished teachers among the Stoics. Cleanthes ap- 
pears to have followed pretty closely the steps of his 
master Zeno ; but Chrysippus has in many things dif- 
fered from both. Hence the Stoics were not thoroughly 
agreed amongst themselves ; some following Cleanthes, 
and others Chrysippus. Persius, both by his using the 
expression/r«o-£ Cleanihea in the fifth satire, and by this 
sarcasm against Chrysippus in the sixth, seems desirous 
to mark whom of the two philosophers he preferred. 

i. The first point concerning which Cleanthes and 
Chrysippus differed, was with respect to perception. 
The former thought, that sensible impressions were 
made upon the brain, and that the objects of its contem- 
plation were actually imprinted upon it. This opinion 
is not very dissimilar to those of Democritus, Leucip- 
pus, and Aristotle. It was, however, justly controvert- 
ed by Chrysippus. The doctrine of material images 
floating betwixt mind and matter, and of the sensible 
species of things leaving impressions upon the brain, is 
one of the most vulnerable parts, either of the Epicu- 
rean, or of the Aristotelian philosophy. 

2. The next question, upon which these two philo- 
sophers disagreed, was, whether or not virtue could be 



NOTES TO SATIRE VI. 159 

lost, after having been once acquired. Cleanthes main- 
tained that it could not, Chrysippus that it could. If 
human virtue were perfect virtue, I should think with 
Cleanthes. 

3. The tendency of the Stoics to materialism, did 
not prevent them from asserting, that the world had a 
mind which guided, and a providence which protected 
it. Chrysippus maintained that providence existed in 
the a;ther, and Cleanthes that it resided in the sun. Non 
nostrum tantas componere lites. 

The reader may find other subjects of difference in 
the precepts of these celebrated Stoics, by consulting 
Diogenes Laertius, and Stobasus among the ancients, 
and Stanley and Bruckerus among the moderns. Re- 
ferring him to these authors, I forbear dwelling any 
longer upon this subject, or swelling these Notes to a 
greater size. 

Depinge ubi sistam 

Inventus, Cbrysippe, tui finitor accrvl. 



FINIS. 




¥W4 



